HSS integral to the WA community RAT Program

In early 2022, the Western Australian (WA) Government approved the use of Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) to help people self-identify positive cases of COVID-19 and reduce the spread of the virus in the community.

Having easy and convenient access to these self-testing kits has become a key tool in our response to the coronavirus. Without them, we’d still be relying solely on PCR testing, putting pressure on testing clinics, and taking vital health care workers away from important work - providing patient care.

According to Director, Rapid Antigen Testing, Deepti Shukla - who has been involved in the procurement, storage, distribution and demand management of our State’s RAT supply - HSS has played an integral role in the rollout of the free RAT program to the WA community.

“We were involved from the very beginning. HSS worked closely with PathWest to procure the RATs back in December 2021. As PathWest were the subject matter experts in this area, they were able to source the most appropriate testing kits,” Deepti said.

“Then came the task of storing enough RATs for the whole State – which proved quite difficult as they have to be temperature controlled. Finding facilities big enough with those requirements in the current market was tricky.

“HSS’ Warehouse and Logistics team were instrumental in finding appropriate storage – working closely with a third-party warehousing and logistics partner to secure a number of warehousing facilities across WA to store an equivalent of two Olympic-size stadiums worth of RATs.”

With storage taken care of, Deepti said she then faced her next challenge – distribution.

“A large quantity of RATs needed to be distributed for use across the WA health system, including public, private, and contracted health partners, which meant the logistics challenge was enormous,” she said.

“At the same time, like many other businesses across the State, our distribution partners were feeling the pressures of COVID-19 and experiencing workforce shortages.”

“This made distribution extra challenging, but with some intensive planning with our external partners, our Warehousing and Logistics team successfully distributed the RATs to our customers,” she said.

But the challenge wasn’t quite over.

In May 2022, the WA Government announced our State’s community free RAT Program, including distribution to public services such as schools, prisons, Police, and Fire and Emergency Services.

“The RATs were initially distributed at vaccination clinics, however the WA Government soon realised these sites couldn’t cope with the volume of people wanting to pick up their RATs while also providing COVID-19 vaccines,” she said.

“It was a great response from the community, but they needed a longer-term solution as the volume was taking staff away from their primary role of providing vaccinations.”

The WA Government contacted HSS to take the lead on developing an alternative plan to distribute the RATs to the community. To make the process simpler and more sustainable, Director RATs, Deepti Shukla and Project Manager, RATs Vidoula Uckiah planned to set up three separate distribution sites across the metropolitan area where the community could access their free RATs from a drive through facility.

“While most people are used to heading to a drive through to pick up a quick take away meal, more recently they’ve been successfully used to collect PCR samples to test for COVID-19, and now to distribute RATs” she said.

On a mission to stand up this drive through distribution plan quickly, the pair then engaged another third-party partner to help establish the drive through sites, develop traffic management plans and setup security.

“These were crucial elements of the process because we learned that any facility which has members of the public driving through is legally required to have a traffic management plan.”

They also set up a simple process to collect, record and manage distribution data of the RATs to help manage demand and supply. Deepti says ensuring the process was as unsophisticated as possible was key to its success.

“We made sure the process was very simple – no apps, no gadgets, minimal data collection. We collected data daily and reported on supply changes using excel. It was quick and easy.”

“Reflecting back, day one went off without a hitch and we couldn’t have done it without all the hard work and dedication from our HSS RAT, Category Management and Warehousing teams, PathWest and our external partners.”

“We successfully distributed 50,000 RATs to 16,000 cars on the first day, and later that week a total of 190,000 RATs.”

A massive feat to be proud of, Deepti said they have also received really great reviews from the public.

“In the first week, people waited 12 minutes from when they entered the gate to the time they collected their RATs. But nobody complained, they felt that it was a shorter wait than a takeaway drive through,” she said.

Deepti said the aim was to provide a holistic geographical coverage of the entire Perth metropolitan area - covering Joondalup in the north, Bassendean in the east, Jandakot in the south and Mandurah in Peel.

“Our aim is to make these RATs as accessible as possible to the public so that we can support our customers to best protect the WA community.”

The four drive through RAT collection centres continue to support our State’s COVID-19 response.

Well done to everyone involved.