Southend MP visits newly-opened COVID test centre
A new COVID-19 testing centre in Southend, which is testing over 200 people a day, has been visited by Sir David Amess.
The site, at the former Nazareth House care home, allows patients to be tested before they come into hospital to have their planned procedures, keeping them self-isolated and minimising their risk of contracting COVID-19.
More than 200 people are being tested at the centre each day; patients who are due to have planned operations, key workers including NHS employees, care workers, the emergency services and education workers, and their household members receiving symptomatic testing.
The new centre has three covered drive-through lanes and parking spaces that can be used for self-swabbing, allowing for patients to be kept distanced from swabbing staff and others while having their COVID tests.
Sir David, the MP for Southend West, was pleased that the site is continuing to care for people in its new COVID-fighting role. He said: “Nazareth House will always be dear to my heart, and following its closure earlier this year I am so glad that its caring ethos has been maintained through this COVID testing centre to fight the pandemic. I would particularly like to thank all the staff who are running the centre for their hard work and expertise.”
Clare Panniker, Chief Executive of Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Our drive-through COVID-19 testing centres are so important for our patients, staff and local keyworkers. I’d like to thank Nazareth House for their support when we moved to this new site, which allows us to test even more people, alongside our other testing sites at Orsett and Broomfield hospitals.”
All three sites offer tests to NHS staff, keyworkers and their household members with COVID-19 symptoms. All tests undertaken in the centres are analysed at Trust laboratories in Broomfield Hospital and the Pathology First hub lab in Basildon.