COVID-19 RT-PCR Testing Service

Keep your employees safe and minimise disruption to your business

Our service enables you to rapidly test both symptomatic employees and those who may be asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic and detect whether they have the virus, helping you to:

• limit infection rates – identifying infected employees at an early stage leaves less opportunity for them to unknowingly spread the virus to their colleagues and means you can quickly take appropriate action to isolate the individuals concerned and ensure the areas in which they work are appropriately disinfected
• reduce absence levels – being able to quickly confirm whether an individual with symptoms actually has the virus, and minimising their contact with their co-workers if they do, means you can reduce the number of employees having to isolate unnecessarily and lessen the impact on your teams’ productivity
• give employees peace of mind – particularly if they are working in an environment where social distancing is difficult, regular antigen testing can help to reassure your employees that you are doing everything possible to keep them protected from exposure to the virus

Tailored testing programmes to suit your business needs and get you the results you need, quickly

We understand that efficiency and flexibility are key to helping you keep your teams healthy and productive during these challenging times, but high demand means there are often lengthy delays in people getting appointments at local testing centres. Our testing service offers rapid turnaround times and a choice of delivery options, so you can select the one that best suits your business:

On-site collection – Our 24/7 on-site service allows us to efficiently test large numbers of your employees at a time, with minimal disruption to your operations:

• visits can be arranged with just 48 hours’ notice
• each sample collection takes just 10 minutes, including cleaning of the facility between each appointment
• our expert sampling officers can collect up to 40 samples in a single visit
• we can arrange for multiple sampling officers to attend visits, if required
• samples are sent to our approved laboratories for testing via same day medical courier

Self-collection – where on-site collection is not operationally feasible, or you have team members who are already self-isolating, our self-collection kits contain everything your employees need to easily collect their own samples at home:

• kits are shipped directly to your employees within 48 hours of your order being placed
• option for same-day shipping for orders placed by 2pm (additional fees apply)
• samples are sent free of charge via Royal Mail’s network of NHS Priority Mailboxes, ensuring they reach our laboratories for testing within 24 hours

No matter which option you choose, with our laboratories operating 24/7 and consistently returning reports within 48 hours of receiving a sample, you can be sure of getting the results you need quickly, without having to wait.

Our approved laboratories high-quality collection kits, skilled sampling officers and approved laboratories mean you can be confident your employees are in safe hands

Through our Alcohol and Drug Testing Service, we already have established relationships with a number of private UKAS and PHE approved laboratories. These same laboratories are now conducting all of our COVID-testing and supply all of our sample collection kits, so you can be confident of their quality and accuracy.

Our self-collection kits are easy to use and have been designed to ensure that your employees can follow a secure sampling protocol and take samples that are fit for analysis every time, with no training required. Each kit includes everything your employees need to collect and package their sample ready for shipping by Royal Mail Tracked 24^®, and we can supplement these with support materials such as instruction cards, donor information sheets and NHS ‘how to videos’ in advance, if required.

We also have access to our own network of over 130 sampling officers, all of whom are experienced Occupational Health or Alcohol and Drug Collection Technicians who have been specifically trained on the COVID-19 RT-PCR Sample Collection process and are fully equipped with their own PPE. Should you choose to use our on-site service, you can therefore be sure we will always have a collection officer available to deliver a safe, professional and reliable service direct to your premises.

Providing end-to-end support to help you keep your employees feeling safe and secure

Our laboratories issue the results of all COVID tests securely via email within 48 hours of receiving a sample. Reports are presented in an easy to understand GDPR compliant format, indicating one of the following three results for each employee tested:

• Not detected – this is a negative result, meaning the employee is unlikely to have been infectious at the time of their sample being collected. However, they may have been exposed to the virus since being tested and could test positive later, so they should still follow NHS guidelines if they or anyone in their household or support bubble start displaying COVID symptoms
• Detected – this is a positive result and employees should therefore follow NHS advice and company policy on what action to take next, particularly around self-isolating
• Inconclusive – this means the laboratory has been unable to obtain a result and a repeat test is required

We understand that it can be worrying if someone does test positive for COVID-19 and are committed to providing ongoing clinical support to our clients as part of our testing service. Our Occupational Health Clinicians are on hand to provide medical guidance, where necessary, on the health risks for those testing positive to ensure that they are given appropriate support when they need it most, particularly if they have underlying health issues which could increase their risk of serious illness.

We can also provide supplementary documentation, including consent forms, information sheets, self-collect training sessions and videos and links to other helpful resources, to support you and your employees to use our testing service effectively from the start.