Coronavirus antibody tests for Newport cancer centre patients and staff

The testing is part of a Rutherford Health plc programme across its network of cancer centres - others are in Reading, Bedlington in Northumberland, and Liverpool - and tests are being processed at a laboratory in Neasden in Middlesex.

Data from the tests is being provided to Government ministers and advisers on testing.

“We were able to secure testing kits from South Korea which had been used successfully in Germany," said Mike Moran, chief executive of Rutherford Health plc.

"Our primary concern is ensuring the safety of patients and staff."

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Professor Karol Sikora, chief medical officer with the company, 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.”

Rutherford Cancer Centres provide a range of cutting edge cancer services, taking in imaging, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiotherapy and proton beam therapy treatment.

All centres offer proton beam therapy to medically-insured private patients, self-paying patients and NHS patients where the Rutherford is commissioned to provide these services.

The Rutherford Cancer Centre in Newport, at the city's Celtic Springs Business Park, was the first to open in the UK, in 2017, and the following year was the first to offer proton beam therapy treatment for otherwise difficult to treat cancers.