AIBU to tell you how shambolic my experience has been trying to get a covid test...

[Shiningstar84]

I'm a teacher and have been back in work around 3 weeks. I've come down with a heavy cold and a cough. Been off since Wednesday
Timeline is as follows:
Tuesday night- Tried to get a test- none available
Wednesday - Got a test local to me- just 6 miles according to the booking. Went to the test site, the main and only road to it completely closed off with signs and cones not letting me past. Tried calling the 'help'line- hour on the phone and missed my appointment.
Thursday- Nearest test site 100 miles away but miraculously got a home test kit booked at 8am- horray
Friday- Home test kit showed at 5pm- after the last post of the day near me
Saturday- Got up early to register the test, take the test and get it to the post office. Registration kept coming up as an error online- lots of people reporting the same, the site is completely down and not working. I missed the last post of the day
Sunday- can't do home test as no post, and it would be null and void as over 4 days since symptoms started. Managed to get a test 40 miles away at 7.30pm

Now I wait for results which could be 48hours. I've already lost precious teaching time with my a-level students and although I've been teaching remotely it just isn't the same. I also have my toddler son at home with me as I obviously can't send him back to nursery- making teaching very difficult.
It's September FFS and these are the issues I and many others are having.

@Flaxmeadow

Straven123

Reading this thread a lot of posters are saying "we/they have a cold" but then saying they want a covid test

But why would someone want a covid test for a cold?

Because we want them to go to school. My sons are both asthmatic and if they get a cold they always get a persistent cough. Without a negative test, if I sent them in with a cough they would be sent home. If it was that easy to tell who has coronavirus and who doesn't we wouldn't need a testing programme would we? The symptoms are variable and can be vague.I thought my son had a cold and I was right, but he met the criteria for testing and if I hadn't got him tested both he and his brother would have been excluded from school for weeks.

I had the same problem when the tests first came out.
No postal tests. Nearest rest centre 20 miles away. Too ill to walk to bottom of my road let alone drive.
Postal one arrives. I book my courier (as per instructions) to collect it the next day. Before you do anything, you must book a courier it says. No bar code to register it. Phone the helpline and they try everything they can and can't register it. How do I cancel the courier I ask? You can't they tell me. So the next day I have to tell courier the test isn't useable and apologise.

Dust forwsrd last month and I need another test. Was pleased to see it wasn't a courier and the barcodes were already stuck on the test tube etc. Wouldn't register on the website. Call the help line and they said its a common problem!

Nightmare when you're trying to get back to work as a teacher, but can't until you've had your test! I'm dreading it happening again.

...everybody can take enabling tests at the beginning of the day and antigen tests to identify whether or not we have the virus., like a pregnancy test, within 15 minutes or so.

TBF, with Boris’s track record with women, speedy and accurate pregnancy tests are much more important than Covid tests.

@chomalungma

But Boris said it was 'world beating' and criticises anyone who has an issue because it's the NHS Track and Trace so anyone who complains is actually criticising the NHS.

Is Boris lying?

We really should be describing the system more accurate as Serco Track and Trace.

@Flaxmeadow

Straven123

Reading this thread a lot of posters are saying "we/they have a cold" but then saying they want a covid test

But why would someone want a covid test for a cold?

Because we are told not to send children back to school or go back to work if we have symptoms including loss of taste and a new persistent cough. Both of those are common symptoms of a cold. As no-one can say 100% that symptoms are down to a cold, thousands of people are currently out of school or off work because they need but can't get a certificate that says it's not Covid.

Someone mentioned private tests. Anyone know how these are accessed, and are they genuine and accurate?

Neil Oliver wrote about his experiences in the Sunday Times yesterday. It was as usual an excellent piece, and summed up the whole ridiculous scenario. It isn’t feasible for every person who has a cough, cold or runny nose to be getting tested for Covid locally and without a problem. The logistics are just not workable. If it’s like this now , it will only get worse as Winter wears on and people get bugs, flu and colds.

I really hate the fact that you can buy private tests. Why on earth does the Gov not introduce a rule that the only valid test is one with a gov serial number, then once there is no private trade offer the private organisations hoarding capacity a per test price for their lab throughput. Testing should be a national effort using all available resources not a cash cow or a another example of the rich being able to que jump.

*Reading this thread a lot of posters are saying "we/they have a cold" but then saying they want a covid test

But why would someone want a covid test for a cold?*

Because in the most part they have a cough and/or temperature and/or loss of smell/taste too. So yes, you can be quite sure it’s just a cold that’s doing the rounds but if your cold is giving you Covid symptoms then it’s isolation/test for you.
There’s a cold that seems to be doing the rounds in my son’s class, all those who’ve had it and had results so far are Covid negative (many can’t get tests) but if/when mine comes down with it I’ll still need to get home a test if he’s got one of the three symptoms.

Also, if people have to drive ( presuming they have a car), and have to use the loo or stop at a motorway cafe etc , they are spreading germs as they go. What about people who can’t drive? Are they supposed to use public transport to get to the nearest testing centre?

The shortages by and large dont appear to be in the test centres but the lab space. Why don't we allow people to register up to the national capacity and direct to the nearest sites with space, when one site it to just direct to the next. The idea of allocating lab space by geography in the uk is daft. Sample can be driven from one end of the country to the other much more efficiently than people if needed

My friend is in Edinburgh and was told to either drive to Aberdeen or fly to Belfast for testing.

I think people just won’t bother
They’ll pop the nurofens /calpol and carry on

48 hours for a result? You’ll be lucky.
Check the website it. It’s 72.

My DC had a high temperature Tuesday morning and trying to get a test was horrendous. No drive through appointments available for 5 days. No walk in appointments at all and had to refresh for hours to get a postal test.
The postal test took more then 24 hours and then arrived after last post so couldn’t test and return on the same day.
Returned the following day first post, it got to Glasgow 24 hours later. Then we waited day 1 was Friday. Nothing over the weekend. So we are on Day 4 of waiting for the result. DC still off school. No work set. Younger DC off nursery. Paying full fees. We’ve missed swimming, toddler football, rainbows - all paid for in full and I can’t work because I have DC at home and I’m isolating.

I honestly couldn’t feel more stressed, anxious, upset and isolated right now. It’s absolutely ridiculous.

Ds has the classic symptoms/ it’s not a cold - temp, continuous cough...no test available anywhere no even Aberdeen!

I don’t get why this problem is all over my Facebook page and mumsnet but not reported anywhere else.

Why can’t one news outlet report some actual news-like this- for a change?

I don't understand why the media aren't talking about it either - there is no testing. I wonder whether they are just resolving the lab crisis by waiting until the tests are out of date, reset and start again - but that would be crazy wouldn't it?
Rising numbers of infections but without testing we don't know how bad this it is.

I'm honestly so disgusted with some of the experiences you've been having- I just can't get over it.
@Herewefall Honestly, the cynic in me tells me that I couldn't register my home testing kit (error page kept cropping up) because they're so overwhelmed in the labs they don't want any more!
I'm concerned that I could now have to wait days and days for my results- It's a farce!!
Also- as a PP mentioned- no special treatment/fast testing for teachers I'm afraid!

Similar experience to op. Had to get a test for dc - high fever, sore throat, flu type symptoms.

Tried Wednesday all day. ‘No sites found’. Eventually offered a test....in Scotland. I’m in NI! Aargh.
Still nothing Wed night, panicking a bit as no home tests either and wondering what to do. Also getting a bit fed up of having to prove I’m not a robot! Get on Twitter to find out if anyone else is having problems. Apparently I’m not alone. By a long way.

Finally on Thursday at 8am a home test is available - Hurrah. Still no drive or walk through to be had, but feeling relieved.

The test was delivered Friday evening 6pm, after the last post. So, another day lost. Did the test Saturday morning. Thankfully no issues registering. Posted 10am before final collection.
Now waiting for results.

Unbelievable that apparently no testing sites were available in the whole of Northern Ireland, but at this point I feel lucky to have had a home test. Can’t see this getting any easier with the current second wave about to come crashing in.

Almost dreading sending dc back to school. I’m hopeful the test will be negative as he’s feeling quite a lot better, although does now have a cough but that’s quite usual for him after a respiratory bug and is quite loose so not covid like. I just feel like I’m sending him back into the lions den.

@WilsonMilson Gosh, sounds very similar to my experience. It's just not good enough is it? It's terrible to have to go through all of this just to prove we don't have covid. Oh and the whole proving I'm not a robot thing- god I could rant all day about that!
Fingers crossed for a negative result

Same here - no test sites available - been updating all last night and this morning

"I think what a lot of people are describing are cold symptoms, and panicking and thinking they have coronavirus."

Employers and schools are following guidance to the letter, as they should - a continuous dry cough or a high temperature gets you sent home for testing.

Often it is just one of the usual winter viruses but if your runny nose comes with a cough and sneezing, testing is exactly what everyone is being told to do.

The test centres have capacity, the bottle-necks are in the labs and I think it's unbelievable really that they didn't see demand increasing when schools went back.

If only it could have been foreseen that the need for testing would increase in the autumn with schools and universities going bac.

I live in a university city - 50, 000 students expected back in the next 10 days. I am going into town one last time this week then not again til spring.

*I think what a lot of people are describing are cold symptoms, and panicking and thinking they have coronavirus."

Every post I've seen knows they likely have a cold, but they have one of the symptoms that the government insist we get a test for. Are you suggesting we ignore the guidelines?

100 mile round trip
42 hours and waiting for the result

My biggest worry is not having done it right and getting an unclear too late to book another appointment.

If that happens we're all grounded for 2 weeks for a return to school cold/cough.