British healthcare and testing company Salutaris People – which operates the rapid PCR testing services for airline passengers at Liverpool John Lennon Airport, in partnership with Test Assurance Group Ltd (TAG(Official Covid-19 testing partner to Liverpool John Lennon Airport)- has unveiled a brand new COVID testing laboratory at Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
The state-of-the-art facility is in partnership with Source BioScience – a leading international provider of laboratory services to clients in the pharmaceutical industry, healthcare, clinical, life science research and biopharma industries – and Salutaris People in partnership with Test Assurance Group Ltd (TAG) are providing COVID and PCR testing at Liverpool John Lennon airport.
The new laboratory has been designed to perform 500 tests per day but can easily be increased in scale to facilitate 1000 tests and beyond if required. Source BioScience are Accredited to ISO 15189: 2012 standards and is also a DHSC listed provider of COVID-19 testing.
The service provided by TAG, Salutaris People,and Source BioScience enables airline passengers at Liverpool John Lennon Airport and those flying from other UK airports with a Rapid Fit to Fly testing service with a turnaround time of 3 hours, alongside a Standard 24 hour Fit to Fly testing service. Samples are also collected on site at Liverpool and processed at Source Bioscience’s main laboratory in Nottingham enabling Day 2, Day 8, Test to Release and a diagnostic PCR COVID testing service for customers.
Cliff Kirby Board Director of Test Assurance Group said:
“We are incredibly proud to be working in partnership with Liverpool John Lennon Airport to support their testing needs. As a business located in the Liverpool City Region it is very important to TAG to ensure the service offered is best in class. Throughout the course of 2021 we have put passenger first whenever there has been a change in legislation or entry requirements for travel has changed.
In line with this it is brilliant for all concerned that Source BioScience have dedicated a facility to support the vision laid out between TAG and Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
As we all start to accept and learn to live with COVID-19 we hope that our approach will make a real difference to those passengers who choose to fly from Liverpool John Lennon Airport”
Ben Paglia MD of Akea Life, the clinical testing partner to Salutaris People said;
“We are pleased to be working in partnership with Source BioScience to provide brand new state of the art facilities on site at Liverpool John Lennon Airport and to offer our customers the best-in-class when it comes to rapid PCR testing services.
For airline passengers using Liverpool John Lennon airport, or any other UK airport for that matter, they can book a test with confidence, knowing their COVID test will be administered by trained healthcare staff and then processed on site within our laboratory, with results back in 3 hours or 24 hours depending on the service chosen. We offer a seamless and simple user journey experience for the customer, making this part of the travel process as simple and painless as possible from a trusted healthcare provider.
More importantly with our lab facilities on site this eradicates test results going missing in the postal system and the huge amount of ‘Unclear’ test results that have originated from self-administered test kits provided by major airlines and travel operators as part of their testing regimes. This has caused a huge amount of disruption with passengers paying twice for testing kits and a huge amount of disruption to air travel and holiday plans. ‘Unclears’ and ‘lost test results’ continue to pose a major issue to airline passengers.”
Salutaris People are committed to providing the best possible testing services to its customers from Liverpool John Lennon Airport to make the testing experience seamless, simple and easy to use. It has made a substantial investment into the onsite laboratory facilities at Liverpool John Lennon airport as European and International air travel strives to return to full flight schedules.
Commenting on the new facilities at Liverpool John Lennon airport, Commercial Director Lucy O’Shaughnessy, said;
“We are delighted to be the first airport in the UK to have such a unique facility and service. Liverpool John Lennon Airport can now provide our valued airline passengers with a state-of-the-art COVID testing facility on site here at the airport as we start to resume our flight schedules and have more passengers flying again. The airport continually strives to offer the best possible service for our customers at all times. Working in partnership with Test Assurance Group (TAG) / Salutaris People and Source BioScience enables us to offer a convenient and efficient PCR testing service operated by trusted healthcare providers.”
The new facility – the only one of its kind at a UK airport – is operated by four laboratory tech staff including a shift supervisor and has 8 PCR analysers on site, a Bio Molecular Systems liquid handler and a thermal cycler to offer a rapid real-time qualitative PCR method for the detection of SARS-CoV-2.
Nick Bills Healthcare Director for Source BioScience said;
“Source BioScience have worked together with EMS Mobile Healthcare to design and build a state-of-the-art mobile COVID testing laboratory for Salutaris People at Liverpool Airport. This laboratory will allow Salutaris People to offer the best-in-class testing services to airline passengers flying from Liverpool John Lennon airport. Source BioScience is a leading international provider of laboratory services to clients in the pharmaceutical industry, healthcare, clinical, life science research and biopharma industries and our focus is on improving patient diagnosis, management and care.”
Both Test Assurance Group and Salutaris People are DHSC listed COVID-19 test providers . Salutaris People also offer a testing suite at Wilmslow which is minutes from Manchester Airport. The TAG / Salutaris partnership nables them to offer their service to all passengers flying from either Liverpool John Lennon Airport or Manchester Airport, as well as airline passengers who live in Liverpool, North Wales, Manchester and Cheshire who may be flying from other UK airports to their holiday destinations.
Credit: Salutaris People
