Excalibur: Care home COVID-19 testing pilots a ‘key step forward’ for visiting

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Excalibur Healthcare Services, a leading UK-based medical supplies company, announced today a key development in its COVID-19 mass testing capability following the successful completion of two significant pilot schemes.

Excalibur conducted extensive testing in UK care home and retirement village settings within the last month using its Rapid SARS-COV-2 Antigen Test. The MHRA-registered test has 100% sensitivity on highly infectious people and 99% on moderately infectious.

Visual results are observed within 2-3 minutes for highly infectious individuals and lower viral load infections within 15 minutes. The test has been rated the most consistently accurate in thousands of tests undertaken by several eminent research laboratories in different countries.

Excalibur conducted a week-long usability study at Littleport Grange Care Home, Cambridgeshire, which is part of the Minster Care Group. The purpose of this study was to understand the utility of the Rapid SARS-COV-2 Antigen Test to facilitate regular visiting to residents in the home. The test was found to have high levels of acceptability and enabled around 60 visits for residents many of whom had not had family visits for several months.

Kathryn McGuirk, manager of Littleport Grange Care Home, said: “The Excalibur team trained my staff so they could confidently use the rapid antigen test. We found the testing process very straightforward and this gave our residents, staff and visitors a lot of confidence there and then. COVID-19 has caused a great deal of anxiety for residents and their families and so being able to quickly test for infectious people has enabled all residents to safely see their loved ones which is so important at this time.”

Excalibur also concluded a usability study at Gifford Lea Retirement Village, Cheshire, part of the Inspired Villages Group. This study focused on ensuring residents themselves did not show evidence of SARS-COV-2 infection.

Excalibur also conducted workplace trials at the Bio-Innovation Centre at the Cambridge Science Park.

Professor Sir Chris Evans, chairman and chief executive of Excalibur Healthcare Services, said: “We are delighted to be rolling out independent testing programmes that are built on a rapid antigen test that has been proven to be among the fastest and most reliable available. It also has the benefit of being one of the most accessible and affordable on the market today.

“This will be a huge help for care homes and these tests are designed to be deployed at scale across a wide range of environments – including hospitals, clinics, educational establishments, businesses, offices, entertainment and sporting venues.

“Given the fast-moving and changing nature of infections, enabling trustworthy testing at scale is now more important than ever before.”