Revealed: Scotland’s flagship testing lab is working at third of capacity

Scotland’s flagship coronavirus testing centre has been working at around a third of capacity since opening, we can reveal.

The Lighthouse laboratory opened five weeks ago and has the capacity to have processed well over 160,000 tests since then but figures show it has carried out around 57,000.

Politicians voiced concern yesterday and asked why more samples were not being dealt with when an effective testing programme is key to the Scottish Government’s contact tracing strategy.

Figures issued yesterday revealed a further 22 deaths meaning 2,353 Scots have died after testing positive. Experts insist more testing is the only way the virus can be controlled and, without mass testing, ministers will effectively be working blind when modelling infection rates and hotspots.

Lib Dem health spokesman Alex Cole-Hamilton asked why the centre was still working under capacity: “I find these test figures astonishing. What is the hold-up? Where is the disconnect between unused capacity and the demonstrable need for testing across our communities?

“We need to be sure all our capacity is used effectively.”

Scottish Conservative Shadow Health Secretary Miles Briggs said: “All over the country, care home staff and residents are crying out for more testing.”

Hugh Pennington, emeritus professor of bacteriology at the University of Aberdeen, said: “It would be nice if there could be more publicity urging people to get a test if they are in the slightest worried. If there is unused capacity, community testing could be rolled out. Why not go to a supermarket and ask if people wish to be tested?”

The Lighthouse, funded by the UK Government, is hosted by the University of Glasgow at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital campus. Two other Lighthouse labs operate, in Milton Keynes and Cheshire, as part of UK plans to test 100,000 people per day.

Professor Michael Barrett, a Glasgow University academic involved in the project, said in an interview with the New Statesman this month that despite “huge supply chain issues,” the number of tests being carried out is climbing: “We’re running through many thousands of tests a day. The numbers have gone up.”

The Glasgow lab opened on April 23 and, since then, capacity has risen from 4,000 tests per day to 7,000. A further 163,000 tests have been carried out via NHS labs in Scotland giving a total of around 220,000. The Scottish Government confirmed 56,132 tests had been carried out at the Lighthouse lab in Glasgow as of Wednesday. That averages at around 1,650 per day since the lab opened.

Ministers had been aiming for a “total testing capacity of 15,500 by the end of May” which they were “on target to slightly exceed” with capacity of 16,200.

This comprises the ability to do 7,000 tests a day at the Lighthouse as well as 6,800 in health board labs, 2,000 in academic nodes and 400 at the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service.

The Lighthouse lab processes samples from five regional test centres, in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Inverness and Perth, which went live throughout April.

A sixth, at Prestwick Airport in Ayrshire, was scheduled to open yesterday. Scotland also has around a dozen mobile testing units.

The Scottish Government said: “The Lighthouse processes all drive-through and mobile tests carried out by Regional Testing Centres in Scotland.

“It has done an excellent job in contributing to Scotland’s response to the pandemic and will play a vital role in our Test and Protect system, where anyone with symptoms should go to NHSInform.scot and arrange to be tested.

“As part of Test and Protect, we expect numbers to increase and are confident the lab has capacity to meet demand.”