Rutherford Health begins coronavirus antibody testing for staff and patients

Private cancer specialist and proton beam therapy provider Rutherford Health today announced that it has begun coronavirus antibody testing for staff and patients.

Data from the testing, which is being carried out across the company’s five sites and processed by a laboratory in Middlesex, will be provided to government ministers and advisers on testing.

Rutherford Health chief medical officer Professor Karol Sikora said: ‘It is vital that patients are as safe as possible when they are being treated and testing will help enormously. It is also hugely important that medical and nursing staff know their status as they are mixing with patients on a daily basis.

‘Our patients include those referred by the NHS and we are engaging in dialogue with the government over the data from our testing.’

The company has secured the testing kits, which have been used successfully in Germany, from South Korea, which is viewed as a global model for how widespread testing can help contain the Covid-19 outbreak.