Thread by @fascinatorfun

#IMMENSA This is eye watering.

All in issue :Staff training, supervision, machinery, safety, lack of SOPS

As one commentator puts it “the sector has become like the Wild West”

Horrified to see DHSC work still being sent to shared Immensa AND Dante Lab at Loughborough

https://twitter.com/chrischirp/status/1453697995225055232

Dr Mark Collery, from Micropathology Ltd, a leading UK laboratory serving more than 200 hospitals across the country, said the Wolverhampton lab was “dangerous” and, in non-Covid times, would have been shut down.

We know from earlier statements that the incident started on 2nd Sept and went on until 11th Oct. (Announced on 15th) That is over 40 days .

Processing c600 tests an hour. x how many hours a day?
7 days a week.

If 8 hrs a day = 4800 a day.

How many machines?

Inexperience. Poor training. Poor supervision.

Old machinery sometimes dysfunctional.

“The machines themselves, provided by the diagnostics company PerkinElmer, were poorly maintained and often broke down due to overuse.

“When they were non-functioning, they took a while to repair. If a machine was down, it made things even worse,” the source said.

“The lab at Charnwood runs a maintenance protocol for each machine before the beginning of every shift to detect potential issues, the source added, but this wasn’t practised at Wolverhampton. Instead, “they were only running it once a week”.

Bloody hell.

“Air conditioning and humidity control sometimes broke, too, the whistleblower said. “Everything needs to have a temperature control, so if the temperature inside the lab fluctuates because of poor air conditioning or air regulation, that will affect test results.”

“The lab was kept cool by two large industrial air conditioning units which were plugged into an extension socket lead. This meant they “sometime couldn’t handle the load” and were overwhelmed, causing them to break.”

“Employees attempted to raise their concerns over working conditions, quality control measures and the high throughput but were allegedly dismissed by senior management officials, some of whom didn’t have a scientific background.”

“They were also mainly Italian and spoke little English, making communication difficult at times.”

Pile ‘em high…and sell ‘em high.