Private health firms have come under fire for profiting from the coronavirus pandemic by selling thousands of testing kits for up to £295 each – while frontline NHS workers go without.
One chain of private clinics in the Midlands has ramped up the cost of its home delivery coronavirus testing kit from £149 to £249 in just a matter of days – a 67% price increase.
Another firm, which normally lets patients book face-to-face GP appointments via an app in London, is selling home tests for £295, boasting laboratory results within 72 hours for what it warns is a “lethal” disease. The firm claims it was in talks with an unnamed NHS body after being approached about providing testing for staff.
It comes amid growing concern that NHS workers are not getting access to tests, with some forced into isolation for two weeks if someone in their household is showing symptoms – meaning they cannot treat patients.
Celebrities, sports stars, the wealthy and businesspeople have talked of testing positive or negative for Covid-19 while members of the public and health professionals with clear symptoms of the virus have been unable to get tests via Public Health England (PHE).
Idris Elba, the star of Luther, posted on Instagram this week that he had tested positive for the virus even though he had not displayed any symptoms. The Arsenal head coach, Mikel Arteta, also tested positive for Covid-19, and the club tested the whole team. A spokesman for the club declined to comment on the suggestion that the team were tested privately.
PHE moved last week to stop testing people for coronavirus if their symptoms were not severe enough to warrant hospital treatment. However, on Wednesday Boris Johnson announced plans to dramatically scale up its operation and to test 25,000 people a day for the disease.
Good Morning Britain’s resident doctor, Hilary Jones, said firms selling private kits for hundreds of pounds “disgusts” him. He told the programme on Wednesday: “First of all, we don’t know if [the test] is accurate. If it is accurate, then why should some people be able to buy it while we’ve got frontline healthcare staff not being able to get it?”
Good Morning Britain
(@GMB)‘This disgusts me.’
‘Why can some people buy private testing when frontline health staff can’t get tested?’
Dr Hilary says the government should requisition any labs carrying out private testing.#AskDrH pic.twitter.com/PMhR1IFCRQ
Summerfield Healthcare – which runs three private clinics in Derby, Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton – is selling home delivery Covid-19 testing kits for £249 that people can carry out themselves by using a throat swab. Customers then send them to one of two laboratories accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS).
The firm, whose director says more than 1,000 kits have been sold in the last 10 days, increased the cost of the tests in recent days from £149 citing increased demand and supplier costs. The website of the company, which is registered with the Care Quality Commission, states: “Coronavirus testing – due to exceptional demand and rising supplier costs we have been forced to increase our test price to £249.”
Dr Grant Charlesworth-Jones, medical director at Summerfield Healthcare, said the firm was making a margin of approximately £50 on each testing kit sold. He admitted that the tests were not endorsed by PHE but said he believed laboratories were pursuing accreditation.
The firm uses Randox Laboratories and another unnamed firm – which he said had increased costs in recent days – to carry out the tests. Of the more than 1,000 tests sold by Summerfield Healthcare, 90% of which had been purchased from London, Charlesworth-Jones said more than half had successfully been processed, so people had their results.
“We sent out 200 tests on Friday and by Monday afternoon we were ringing people and emailing people with results. Out of the 200 tests that we did, 99% were negative,” he told the Guardian, adding: “We have reported those two cases as a notifiable provider to PHE and they’ve accepted them, they haven’t queried them, they haven’t complained about them or requested they be rechecked.”
As well as private care workers and other individuals, businesses in finance, logistics, warehousing and haulage had been buying the tests, Charlesworth-Jones said. Asked to justify the perceived unfairness of those who could afford to pay being tested before frontline NHS workers, he said: “Do you want an honest quote? I think it’s grossly unfair. If you want to look after anyone, you’ve got to look after the care workers and the caregivers, otherwise you’ve got no personnel fabric with which to run the system on which you’re relying to run this pandemic.”
Challenged on why he was profiting from selling the tests if he believed it was grossly unfair, he said: “It’s very simple, because as a commercial organisation, unless we make a profit we would actually [go] bust.”
Qured, a company which normally offers face-to-face private GP appointments within two hours at homes or workplaces in London, started selling coronavirus testing kits for £295 on Monday and had already taken 1,500 orders. Co-founder Alex Templeton explained the firm also used Randox for its testing, and said he understood the laboratory was in the process of seeking accreditation from PHE with trials.
Symptoms are defined as either:
- a high temperature – you feel hot to touch on your chest or back
- a new continuous cough – this means you’ve started coughing repeatedly
NHS advice is that anyone with symptoms should stay at home for at least 7 days.
If you live with other people, they should stay at home for at least 14 days, to avoid spreading the infection outside the home.
After 14 days, anyone you live with who does not have symptoms can return to their normal routine. But, if anyone in your home gets symptoms, they should stay at home for 7 days from the day their symptoms start. Even if it means they’re at home for longer than 14 days.
Information: If you live with someone who is 70 or over, has a long-term condition, is pregnant or has a weakened immune system, try to find somewhere else for them to stay for 14 days.
If you have to stay at home together, try to keep away from each other as much as possible.
After 7 days, if you no longer have a high temperature you can return to your normal routine.
If you still have a high temperature, stay at home until your temperature returns to normal.
If you still have a cough after 7 days, but your temperature is normal, you do not need to continue staying at home. A cough can last for several weeks after the infection has gone.
Source: NHS England on 18 March 2020
Templeton said Qured’s package included a GP phone consultation both before and after, with the “novel coronavirus extended array testing kit” courier-delivered to people’s doorsteps and lab results within 72 hours. The first batch of tests had been sent off by the company on Wednesday morning, he said. Healthcare workers were among those who had paid out of their own pocket for kits, he said, as well as businesses in media, finance and property.
Templeton said his firm was in talks with one unnamed NHS body after being approached about providing testing for staff. “This [testing] is something that should be provided, undoubtedly, by the NHS,” he added. He declined to comment on criticism of private firms profiting from selling coronavirus testing kits.
In response to a question about whether the home test kits were being trialled for accreditation by PHE, a spokesman highlighted government guidance stating: “Some manufacturers are selling products for the diagnosis of Covid-19 infection in community settings … The current view by PHE is that use of these products is not advised.” Randox was contacted for comment.
