Do you qualify for immediate COVID-19 testing?

In line with Public Health England and Government guidance, our Trust has taken measures to ensure health care providers and their workers wellbeing during this COVID-19 period, whilst at the same time facilitating safe and healthy staff to provide safe patient care.

Have you or one of your household had Covid-19 like symptoms for 24 hours?

These are:

• a high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)
• a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)
• a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you've noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal

This site allows frontline staff with possible COVID-19 like symptoms and also for isolating staff whose household contain individuals with possible COVID-19 symptoms to make a booking to have a swab taken for subsequent testing for all symptomatic individuals.

The staff member must not come to work and should book an appointment for all symptomatic individuals, if they have been symptomatic for 24 hours, into one of the swabbing pods or drive thru sites for swab testing. You should have access to a car and not travel to the sites via public transport or taxi service. If you don't have access to a car please liaise with your line manager, who is then able to contact central outpatient department for advice.

Please follow the Public Health England guidance and/or your Trust employer guidance regarding the self isolation period of time or a sooner safe return to work based on test results.