Questions to the Mayor of London – answered at on 7 February 2019.
Since December 2016, London’s public health laboratory, previously at St Barts, has been closed and its staff redeployed across the south east. The Lead Public Health Microbiologist post has been vacant since 2016 and the London regional virologist post since June 2018.
Do you agree that London requires a city-based, 24/7 public health lab, and will you write to Public Health England asking a) what risk assessment they made of their decision to disestablish the London facility and b) what plans they have for the city’s future needs in this department?
My statutory health advisor, Professor Yvonne Doyle, has assured me that the London population is currently well served in relation to public health through the public health laboratory in Cambridge. This arrangement was put in place as an interim measure when the public health laboratory in London left Barts Health NHS Trust.
Plans are underway to reintroduce a laboratory based in London. I understand that the provision of expert microbiological advice has not been compromised by the relocation of the consultant and biomedical staff, and will keep the matter under review through my regular meetings with Professor Doyle.