Wolverhampton lab errors said to have caused additional Covid deaths
Mistakes made by staff in a Wolverhampton laboratory which led to thousands of positive Covid cases, may have also caused 23 extra deaths.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) suspended testing at the Immensa lab in October 2021, following reports of inaccurate results.
Following an investigation by UKHSA, it has been discovered that errors may have led to around 39,000 results being incorrectly reported as negative when they should have been positive, alongside 23 people dying due to false negative results. This represents around 10% of samples tested at the laboratory between 2 September and 12 October 2021 and 0.3% of all samples tested for NHS Test and Trace during this period.
The cause was the incorrect setting of the threshold levels for reporting positive and negative results of PCR samples.
UKSHA has estimated that the mistakes could have resulted in as many as 55,000 additional infections. The lab is thought to have sent out around 43,000 false negative results across the South West.
The report said: “Each incorrect negative test likely led to just over two additional infections.
“In those same geographical areas, our results also suggest an increased number of admissions and deaths.”
The laboratory was commissioned to provide additional testing capacity for NHS Test and Trace from 2 September 2021 until it was suspended on 12 October 2021. Immensa was paid more than £100m to carry out testing for the NHS.
Richard Gleave, UKHSA director and lead investigator, said: “We have concluded that staff errors within Immensa’s Wolverhampton laboratory were the immediate cause of the incorrect reporting of COVID-19 PCR test results in September and October 2021.
“It is our view that there was no single action that NHS Test and Trace could have taken differently to prevent this error arising in the private laboratory.
“However, our report sets out clear recommendations to both reduce the risk of incidents like this happening again and ensure that concerns are addressed and investigated rapidly.
Jenny Harries, UKHSA Chief Executive, said: “I fully accept the findings and recommendations made in this report, many of which were implemented as soon as UKHSA discovered the incident. These ongoing improvements will enhance our ability to spot problems sooner where they do arise”.
