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Experience of a novel community testing programme for COVID-19 in London: Lessons learnt
- Source :
- Clin Med (Lond)
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- Royal College of Physicians, 2020.
-
Abstract
- We describe the London community testing programme developed for COVID-19, audit its effectiveness and report patient acceptability and patient adherence to isolation guidance, based upon a survey conducted with participants. Any patients meeting the Public Health England (PHE) case definition for COVID-19 who did not require hospital admission were eligible for community testing. 2,053 patients with suspected COVID-19 were tested in the community between January and March 2020. Of those tested, 75 (3.6%) were positive. 88% of patients that completed a patient survey felt safe and 82% agreed that community testing was preferable to hospital admission. 97% were able to remain within their own home during the isolation period but just 41% were able to reliably isolate from other members of their household. The London community testing programme allowed widespread testing for COVID-19 while minimising patient transport, hospital admissions and staff exposures. Community testing was acceptable to patients and preferable to admission to hospital. Patients were able to reliably isolate in their home but not from household contacts. The authors believe in the importance, feasibility and acceptability of community testing for COVID-19 as a part of a package of interventions to mitigate a second wave of infection.
- Subjects :
- Male
Program evaluation
medicine.medical_specialty
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
Isolation (health care)
Cross-sectional study
Pneumonia, Viral
Psychological intervention
Audit
030204 cardiovascular system & hematology
03 medical and health sciences
COVID-19 Testing
0302 clinical medicine
London
Pandemic
medicine
Humans
Mass Screening
Community Health Services
030212 general & internal medicine
Program Development
Pandemics
Clinical Laboratory Techniques
business.industry
COVID-19 rapid report
Public health
COVID-19
General Medicine
Cross-Sectional Studies
England
Family medicine
Patient Compliance
Female
Public Health
Coronavirus Infections
business
Program Evaluation
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 14734893 and 14702118
- Volume :
- 20
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Clinical Medicine
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....f1d063ae8603c3fe8ec9954d309456da