Unite: PHE lab closures would be ‘major blow’

When asked about the rumours, which appeared in the UK-based newspaper The Independent​, PHE told us it has not made a decision.

It said a consultation is ongoing and it is unknown what will happen and when and pointed us towards a statement it gave to the newspaper.

“We are consulting our staff and partners on proposals to increase the resilience of the current service model and reduce the costs for the taxpayer by operating from three specialist laboratories rather than the current five laboratories.​

“Final decisions will be made following the consultation which closes in December.”​

Union response​

Dorothy Fogg, Unite regional officer responsible for PHE, said it is another worrying development; more cuts to services when demand is increasing.

“The potential loss of 40 skilled jobs is also to be strongly deplored. Unite does not accept the closure of the PHE labs in Birmingham and Preston; and that York is the only such lab in the Midlands and north of England,” ​she said.

“Any delay because of these two closures in analysing results could pose a problem, in certain circumstances, to the public health of the local population.”​

The Independent cited an insider at PHE who said labs in Birmingham and Preston could be shut in the coming weeks with up to 40 job losses, to save £1m in response to budget cuts.

PHE also has Food, Water and Environment labs in York, London and Porton.

Fogg said three years ago there were about 19 labs around the country.

“These have been reduced to five and with the proposed closure of another two it will mean lots of travel, if not the people collecting the samples then the samples themselves,” ​she said.

“This is a major blow for food water and environmental hygiene and to our members across the country who have been in a destabilised state due to constant reorganisation within PHE.​

“Unite will be making strong representations to keep these labs open in the interests of public health and we will be actively supporting our members at this very difficult time for them and their families.”​

PHE use of WGS​

Earlier, PHE revealed its Gastrointestinal Bacteria Reference Unit (GBRU) has been doing whole genome sequencing (WGS) for identifying and characterising Salmonella isolates from April 2014 and since April this year it has replaced most of the serotyping for routine identification of Salmonella species.

The initial step involves Multi Locus Sequence Typing (MLST) to assign each isolate a profile or sequence type that correlates to traditional serotype, allowing backward compatibility.

The second step involves comparison of the isolate’s full genome to an appropriate reference genome to identify individual nucleotide differences (single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs). 

The assigned SNP address for each isolate is then added to a secure Gastro Data Warehouse and used to identify clusters of cases and, if available, food isolates that have the same SNP address. 

Clusters of interest are further investigated by generating phylogenetic trees.