All aboard for mobile testing and vaccination
Abingdon Prep School welcomed the opportunity to help evaluate the latest innovative scheme to get mobile Covid-19 testing and vaccination centres out into the community. The ‘testing bus’ prototype arrived at the school for a trial run, offering lateral flow tests to the staff teaching the children of key workers.
The idea is that any standard city bus or Sprinter van can be converted to a mobile Covid-19 testing or vaccination centre in a matter of days. It can then be dispatched to areas in the community that are either difficult to reach or require a rapid response.
The company behind this latest step in combating Covid-19 is Project MOVE, based at Harwell Campus in Oxfordshire. It provides the UK’s only rapidly-deployable, mobile clinical bay platform designed to be quickly installed into public buses. The multi-use bays provide ample space for doctors and nurses to deliver a variety of clinical services directly into the community. Once the mobile testing centres are no longer needed the bays can be removed and the bus returned to normal service.
Craig Williams, Headmaster at Abingdon Prep commented,
“We were delighted to be able to help with this project. The whole process from the bus arriving, parking and opening for testing was very quick, accessible and convenient. I am sure it will be a very valuable resource.”
David Brown, Managing Director of Project MOVE said,
“We are enormously grateful to Abingdon Prep School for the opportunity to give our bus its first live trial. One of the main reasons we created the mobile platform was so that COVID testing and vaccines could be taken directly where they are needed most. Everyone on the Project MOVE team has kids in school so we understand how important it is for schools to maintain the highest levels of safeguarding while minimising disruption.”
