This week, SWLP Point of Care Manager Haval Ozgun spoke at a virtual international point of care (POCT) conference, which was live-streamed to 35 European countries and then shared globally. Haval was interviewed by a TV broadcaster from Denmark about the role that POCT has played and is playing in the Covid-19 pandemic. Haval was asked questions about the challenges he and his team have faced during the pandemic, how they coped and what some of their successes have been.
One of the key challenges that Haval highlighted was the difficulty of identifying and isolating patientswith the virus before they became inpatients at the hospital. The solution required rapid testing capabilities, which were not available during the first wave of the pandemic, however new technology has now been successfully piloted at St George’s Hospital by the SWLP POCT team and is now being rolled out across the country. This is crucial because it prevents patients infecting staff and other patients while in hospital.
Haval also highlighted the value of the provision of blood gas analysers across the SWLP network as one of the big successes of the pandemic, noting that the harmonisation and standardisation project which was started in 2018 played a big part. Clinical staff in south west London were able to use the same platform for blood gas analysis, enhancing patient safety, service resilience and business continuity.
Haval says, “It was an honor to be able to speak at this event and to highlight all of the successes that we have seen in POCT.
“It is crucial now to keep innovation in POCT going as it saves lives. Testing is the first line of defense that we have in our health services and POCT is revolutionising how we manage our patients.”
