Trying to get a test

[toiletpaper]

So my son had a cold yesterday and has tonight developed a continuous cough so I'm on the nhs site to try and book him a test but when I go through the service, at the end it tells me 'this service is currently very busy' and that more tests should be available later. How could it be this busy at 1am! Has anyone else had this? Should I just keep trying and hope I get one eventually?

I work for GP out of hours, have spoken to so many people tonight who haven’t been able to secure a test.

I think things are on the rise again.
One of my colleagues said she’d heard to keep trying on the hour.

Thanks for the tips, definitely sounds like it's on the up. I work for the nhs, any ideas if I could go through that service to get my son a test?

they have been very low on stock for a few days now. Test results taking a long time to come back as well in some cases. Things do seem to be picking up quite a lot

I had the same problem on Monday but after trying relentlessly for about 1.5 hours online, some local slots came up. 36 hours later and still don't have the results though. Good luck!

I'm still trying two hours later, this is ridiculous!

I've been trying since about 1am, just tried again now and get the same message. What a nightmare!

Does anyone know if I need to keep re-entering my details or is refreshing the page enough?

Same for me too! I've been trying in vain all night I've been refreshing most of the time at the busy page but sometimes I press the back button and 'start now' for good effect and it goes straight back to the busy page so I think refresh is doing the job, I hope anyway.

Try at 8am OP. More tests usually are released. Or ring 911 if you drive they open at 7am. Good luck.

What about your GP you could call them too?

@toiletpaper

Thanks for the tips, definitely sounds like it's on the up. I work for the nhs, any ideas if I could go through that service to get my son a test?

If you are a key worker your employer can refer a member of your household for a test.

I’ve heard anecdotally that 8am and 8pm best times to try.

@YippieKayakOtherBuckets that's great news, my health board has a phone number for an employee to get a test and I'd planned to ring them at 8am when they open if I hadn't gotten through the gov.uk way before that.

@Schoolsout2 and @ceeveebee thanks for that, I'll have to try them at 8am if my health board won't do family members but I can't imagine they won't since they'll want me back in work asap, especially the way cases are starting to rise.

8am seems to have cracked it for a home test for us, thanks @ceeveebee! That's still the kids off school until Monday I would have thought tho 😭

Hope you manage to get a test sorted @toiletpaper

I had to do a test two weeks ago. I live east coast Scotland and was told my nearest test centre was Newcastle

Tested on Monday lunchtime, still waiting for results. Booked the test on Monday morning, which was great but not so when results still aren’t back. If the tests are lost tomorrow is the last day it can be repeated within the 5 day symptom window. All of us started with snotty noses, then developed into coughs and I had a temperature.

I've been trying to ring my nhs employees line since 8am, got cut off after waiting 40 minutes and I've been waiting 22 minutes now, I'm sorry I didn't just request a home test on the gov.uk site now as I'm not sitting on the bloody phone all day waiting to get through