Just back to school. Now home. Not tests available

[Whatdowehaveherethen]

My boys went back to school last week. DS1 developed a persistent cough Friday evening. DS2 picked it up on Saturday.

There are no home tests available. I've looked every hour from 7am through to 2am since.

They can't go to school unless a negative result is given. I very much doubt I can get tests through the post. Many people on my area have the same issue.

I know I'm being unreasonable. I know!

Are people ordering tests 'just in case'?

I'm working from home and it's been horrendous. My boys were so happy to be back at school. Now I have to keep them off for a week. I'm pretty sure last Autumn term they developed the same cold/cough symptoms once they were back with their viral loaded friends. It was normal then.

I know keeping them off school is for the greater good but I have no idea how this is going to work in the long term. They constantly pick up viral infections. That's their job!

Actually, I'm not sorry, I'm just completely fucked off. Why haven't the gov made more tests available knowing our kids would be going back to school? What about the teachers?

The school have told me to 'continue to use' the online learning. This involves going out and finding leaves of difference colours etc. Fuck that.

I know the school are using a generalised online learning system but it's not practical at all.

I'm not going to complain by the way. I couldn't respect my boys teachers anymore. They're wonderful.

I'm just ranting.

Mine offers me tests in surrey (great, that’s where we are), but at the booking stage tries to send me to Oldham...

119 says no home testing kits are available, and then cut you off before you speak to their call operators because they're so very busy. Has anyone managed to get through to 119 staff this week? Been trying since yesterday afternoon to get test results that the test centre said to expect on Sunday. Tired of going through the same 5 questions on 119 to be cut off yet again.

The same happens with me when I call 119. Just a voice recording saying they are extremely busy and then it cuts off before I speak to anyone. No home-testing available and can't get any drive-thru appointments.

@SoCrimeaRiver

119 says no home testing kits are available, and then cut you off before you speak to their call operators because they're so very busy. Has anyone managed to get through to 119 staff this week? Been trying since yesterday afternoon to get test results that the test centre said to expect on Sunday. Tired of going through the same 5 questions on 119 to be cut off yet again.

Exactly the same here. I gave up trying as it was pointless because it didn't let you speak to a person so i figured i might as well just focus on refreshing the website.

The test kits have to be processed within a certain time frame for the results to be meaningful. This is why you have to book them and they'll only send out a certain number per day, as then they know they have processing capacity for the returns.

If everyone had a kit at home, and then 20% sent them in all in the same day, the system wouldn't cope and many would have to be repeated.

It's a shambles at present. Clearly schools going back was going to massively increase demand, yet still the system didn't anticipate this

I'm in an area of high infection. No postal available

I don't understand why Sarah-Jane Marsh sees the need to put her '2day' worklist on Twitter all the time. So, she's busy and a working mum according to her 'school run' thing at the beginning of a lot of her '2day' lists (good for her - so are many others - what's she want, a round of applause?)

Perhaps instead of listing all she does, she actually got on with the job she's paid to do, her testing lab facilities wouldn't have a pinch point. Clearly one of those who acts like Nero - fiddles whilst Rome burns rather than getting on with it.

In a plot twist

We put my test in the priority post box at 7am yesterday morning. This was in London and the address on the box is Glasgow.

Just checked on the Royal Mail tracker and it's showing as being in the main sorting office 5 miles away!!!! Wtf is going on. It's travelled five miles in 24 hours?

I've just phoned work and I can't go back without a negative test result. What on earth is happening?

@justchecking1

The test kits have to be processed within a certain time frame for the results to be meaningful. This is why you have to book them and they'll only send out a certain number per day, as then they know they have processing capacity for the returns.

If everyone had a kit at home, and then 20% sent them in all in the same day, the system wouldn't cope and many would have to be repeated.

It's a shambles at present. Clearly schools going back was going to massively increase demand, yet still the system didn't anticipate this

So why isn't Royal Mail returning them to the labs quickly then?

@ErinBrockovich

Tbh if it stays like this most will just send kids in with symptoms *@puzzleboxes* before my experience this morning I would have thought anyone who did this was a selfish arse. Having experienced:

• No postal tests available
• No walk in tests available
• My 2 closet drive through centres being fully booked for the next 5 days. The 3rd closet being 169 miles away.

-119 having a recorded message stating they are too busy to take any calls and disconnecting the line

I’ll do the same.

Yep 2 weeks at home isolating for all of us every time a member of our household has a cough/sore throat/temperature, especially now the kids are back at school so exposed to germs etc.? Not doable for anybody- most workplaces wouldn’t tolerate that plus kids missing half the year of schooling probably. There needs to be easy and accessible testing available or people will have no choice but to go out with symptoms.

Is being reported in the news today that the shortage isn’t with slots at the testing sites or of the tests themselves. Is that the labs can’t keep up in processing the tests.

If everyone follows the advice on here to just turn up on spec at a testing site I can’t help but think that it’ll end up meaning that the labs become so overloaded that tests can’t be processed in time.

Yes this is one huge fuck up but if we all just start turning up at test centres I can’t help but think this might make the situation worse for everyone.

@LondonJax Or better still have the GP surgeries hold test clinics. Many GPs have been saying they can't understand why they aren't being used rather than having drive through test centres miles away from most people - you just encourage people to drive when they may not feel 100% well or worse still, get public transport with fingers crossed when you have a test centre appointment if you can't drive or don't feel up to it.

My friend said testing locally to her in Germany is through their GP surgeries, which makes sense, especially on an ongoing basis. Though Lark's post suggests the problem here now is actually processing the tests.

“We have growing confidence that we will have a test, track and test operation that will be world-beating and yes it will be in place by June 1,” Johnson told parliament.

I hope schools end up taking a pragmatic attitude to this and do not send children home for every cough and cold. It might take a judicial review application however to ensure children are able to obtain their statutory education this winter and nationally based rules. Education has always been an outlier where eg some areas have grammar schools and others like the NE where I am from abolished them in 1970, Why is one group of children in the same nation entitled to X and others to Y?

@ErinBrockovich

Tbh if it stays like this most will just send kids in with symptoms *@puzzleboxes* before my experience this morning I would have thought anyone who did this was a selfish arse. Having experienced:

• No postal tests available
• No walk in tests available
• My 2 closet drive through centres being fully booked for the next 5 days. The 3rd closet being 169 miles away.

-119 having a recorded message stating they are too busy to take any calls and disconnecting the line

I’ll do the same.

Our school would send them home again and then refuse them entry until the 14 days / you get a test. One family was turned away at the gate yesterday as their child was coughing

I hope schools end up taking a pragmatic attitude to this and do not send children home for every cough and cold
Once more for everyone at the back, schools don't make the rules!

The NHS and government rules say if anyone has:

1. A new, continuous cough or a cough that has got worse than usual (in the case of people with respiratory conditions)
2. A temperature
3. Loss of smell or taste

Needs to go home and be tested.

Out of interest, how do you plan that anyone successfully identifies whether a cough is caused by Covid or not in a classroom?

The government has done a great job of setting up the 'blame the schools' in the event of an outbreak when a week into term people are ready to blame schools for following the NHS rules.

You can't get tests in the NE. Had a look for a friend and she had to drive to York which is over 60 miles away.

My friend said testing locally to her in Germany is through their GP surgeries, which makes sense, especially on an ongoing basis. Though Lark's post suggests the problem here now is actually processing the tests.
So there's no point in upping the testing capacity if we can't up the lab capacity?
It's hard to get a GP appointment too - so perhaps not worth doing it at GP surgeries unless they have more space/easier access (due to a lot of GPs working at home). And even then, you have to go to the surgery and come into contact with people who have other illnesses.

Oh fantastic

We can't get a drive-thru test or home test either!

Weren't they testing in IKEA in gateshead at one point

If you get a postal test do you just put it in a regular post box to return ?

Out of interest, how do you plan that anyone successfully identifies whether a cough is caused by Covid or not in a classroom?

Exactly this. Thread after thread with posters saying "stop testing when it's just a cold" and variations thereof. Problem is kids usually get a cough and/or fever when they've got a cold so how do we tell the difference without a test? You can't is the answer.

Children can't go.into school with a cough or a fever on the assumption that it's "just a cold".

@Notfeelinggreattoday

If you get a postal test do you just put it in a regular post box to return ?

No, they have designated priority post boxes. There's a link on the Royal Mail site identifying which post boxes are priority and they've also got a sign on them

Have you tried ringing the testing helpline and explaining the situation?

In the NE too, I know people who have been trying for days to get a test. It's a shit show. And now there is a spike in my area.