Covid tests; is test centre quicker than postal?

[Mrsfrumble]

.... In terms of speed of results?
DD has been coughing all morning. She has a stinking cold and cough variant asthma anyway so I’m 99.99999% sure it’s not Covid, but I also know if I send her to school like this they’ll want her tested. So I’ve managed to book a test at a walk-in place tomorrow morning (we’re in London, no car) and was wondering how quickly we could expect to hear the result. Has anyone had a walk-in test in London recently? How was it?

We’re not in London, but have had about 5 in total across the family. All the results came back 24-36 hours. I think they say 24-48 hours and give you a number to call if it’s longer than that.
Good luck for a negative result!

Postal was absolutely shambolic for us and ended up in a wasted test a 14 day isolation as the test wasn't collected (had to arrange a courier due to how long it took the test to arrive and the weekend post)

If you can , go to a centre.

Yes, simply because of the time it takes to post the test to you and you to post it back. It will add at least 2 days to the results time. We’ve done test centre every time and always had results back in exactly 24 hours.

Thanks. When I got the confirmation email I realised I’d booked the test for today, not tomorrow, so we speed-walked / scooted the 2.5 miles there and got it done straight away! It was very quick and efficient, but we were warned that the results might take longer than the usual 24-48 hours because of the backlog.
It feels like such a formality when I’m so sure it’s not covid. DS is furious that he’ll have to quarantine too until we get the result, so I’m really hoping against the odds it will be quick and they can both go back to school.

(Negative) test results cam through at 6.36 this morning! I am incredibly impressed! I’m sorry that there are so many people having a less efficient experience with the testing process and I hope things improve rapidly.

OH got his back in 17 hours

It was just the shambles off trying to book and ending up at three empty test centres which stretched out the time