Local success-story firm to distribute new rapid Covid test
Photo: The co-founders of Critical Healthcare, MD Seamus Reilly and CEO Dr Anne Cusack.
Batches of a rapid-fire test that can determine within minutes whether someone has Covid-19, are expected to arrive this month at the warehouse of a local firm that has won the right to distribute the kit.
Critical Healthcare, which has in just twelve months almost doubled its workforce from 19 to 33 and made the move from its original base in Kilbeggan to a larger facility in Tullamore, supplies essential kit for ambulance and other emergency services throughout Ireland as well as in the UK, Denmark, Germany and Spain.
Roche Pharmaceuticals has awarded Critical Healthcare the right to distribute the new test to pre-hospital settings.
"We have been working with Roche for the last ten years, mostly in the pre-hospital market in the UK and Ireland, so for them it was a natural fit for us to take it on for the pre-hospital market again here," says company CEO and joint founder, Dr Ann Cusack.
Critical Healthcare is looking to include the new rapid test as part of its sets of PPE kit, and Dr Cusack points out that it will be a vital tool in the armoury of firms attempting to ensure their staff are all Covid-free."In terms of business continuity for organisations it is a really solid pack for them to be able to take on," says Dr Cusack, adding that the test will be supplied with all the necessary PPE kit - surgical masks, FFP2 masks, face shields, special wipes, Clinell hand sanitizer, aprons with long sleeves.
"If the kit is going to an organisation, then they know everything is there."The rapid-test takes just minutes to give a result, and it does not have to be sent away to a laboratory:"It is still a nasal swab so it comes with the extraction tube and the nozzle cap and the sterile swab. The instructions are all there but Roche with still say that you need a medical professional to conduct the test," she says.
Already, there has been a lot of interest from firms because they recognise that it is a lot more cost effective to pay to test staff than to risk an outbreak and the complications that could bring.
"You want to have as many tools as possible in your armoury to protect your staff and to protect your business," Dr Cusack points out, adding that many of the enquiries they have been receiving are from firms that would be outside what might be considered the emergency services field.