LONDON (UK) – The National Health Service said on Tuesday that Roche has alerted hospitals about an issue with the supply chain at its distribution facility in southern England, causing a delay in the dispatch of some products as well as tests for the coronavirus.
“We are prioritising the dispatch of COVID-19 PCR and antibody tests and doing everything we can to ensure there is no impact on the supply of these to the NHS,” said the firm.
“Roche has alerted hospitals to an issue with their supply chain, and they will be working urgently to resolve this issue,” NHS said.
Roche shifted to the National Distribution Centre in Newhaven, England, from a warehouse in September and during the shifting, the firm came across a number of unforeseen issues, which caused the delay.
Roche is one of the biggest suppliers of chemicals, equipment and machines which are used to run COVID-19 tests by NHS across the country. On Monday, the firm alerted NHS about the supply chain issue, causing a big drop in the firm’s processing capacity, said the Financial Times.
This has already sent shockwaves across the NHS and clinicians fear that it could intensify the existing shortages in supplies of diagnostics equipment, said the report.