Health staff are receiving tests for coronavirus at one of the county's first drive-thru testing centres.

NHS staff from Medway and Swale are getting swab tests at the facility at Medway Maritime Hospital while a host of sites have also opened at hospitals throughout Kent.

The expansion means all health workers can receive swabs to find out if they have Covid-19 at the hospital as the NHS ramps up testing capacity.

GPs, community health workers, hospital staff and frontline social care workers can now get a test done at the centre which is being run by the Medway NHS Foundation Trust.

Screening for health workers was already in place at the hospital in Gillingham but trust bosses say the new drive-thru means more key workers will be able to get tested.

Other major hospitals including the Kent and Canterbury Hospital, William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, QEQM in Margate and Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford have seen testing centres built on site.

But not all have the new drive-thru facility where patients do not have to leave their cars to get a swab test done by nurses dressed in PPE (personal protection equipment).

The sites throughout Kent have been set up ahead of the national schedule for NHS staff testing.

Drive-thru testing in Medway started last Wednesday and since then 341 people have been tested – an average of 48 per day – but the trust said it did not have figures available for the number of positive cases.

The trust says any member of staff self-isolating due to having symptoms or those self-isolating because a household member has symptoms is able to receive the test.

Anyone showing symptoms who lives with an NHS staff member is eligible to be tested there as well.

Medway NHS Trust chief executive James Devine said: “Like many hospitals and other vital services across the country, we have a number of staff who are unable to work due to self-isolation.

"We hope that by providing this service we can continue to manage and sustain our joint response to Covid-19.

“I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our partners in the community for their continued support in enabling our non-Covid patients to be cared for away from the hospital."

The hospital's chief operating officer Harvey McEnroe is urging all members of staff to get a test.

He said: "Now more than ever it is important for us to pull together as a community. I am very pleased that we are able to offer COVID-19 testing to staff in our partner organisations.

"Covid-19 is the biggest challenge to our health and social care system in a generation and we absolutely must work together.”

Director of public health at Medway Council, James Williams, said the authority is "extremely pleased" to see the screening programme extended to all care workers on the frontline.

Mr Williams added: "We are committed to supporting Medway’s most vulnerable residents and this will help us get our dedicated staff back to work if they are self-isolating as a family member is showing symptoms of Covid-19.

"We will continue to work closely with our partner agencies during these unusual times.”

Helen Martin, the director of operations for Medway Community Healthcare, added the move will "greatly assist" the organisation to work closely with health and social care teams and patients while protecting staff's health.

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