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Original poster

Can't get a test at all

37 replies

Intrepidintrovert · 13/09/2020 21:28

There's just none available in my area (or within 75 miles I suppose). It just comes up with nothing available. I've had a temperature and cough since yesterday and can't get tested. I have sat all day yesterday and today trying to book a test and over and over it just comes up nothing available. My friend is also sick and she went to a test site to see if they'd just let her have a test but they wouldn't and said she needed to book (but it looked pretty empty?!) What are people actually going to do? Presumably nobody else in my area can get tested right now either then - which means there are probably a lot of undiagnosed cases.

I feel so stuck as I can't be off work for a fortnight. I'm a real stickler for the rules but if people can't get tests, this isn't going to work.

OP posts:
TheCatsPjammas · 13/09/2020 21:34

Yes just tried for DS. Nothing. Very frustrating.

AHippoNamedBooBooButt · 13/09/2020 21:39

Trying to get one for dd and ds (although most likely heavy colds, schools will want a test) and it's just impossible. Well not impossible, I was offered some 25miles away but I refuse to drive 25miles for what is most likely a cold, and when we have a testing centre 1.5miles from our house. The system is dire

honeylou42 · 13/09/2020 21:40

I tried numerous times last week and gave up in the end 😷

AiryFairyMum · 13/09/2020 21:40

No, nothing here either. It's a shambles.

Original poster
Intrepidintrovert · 13/09/2020 21:40

What are people supposed to do? I'm so frustrated.

OP posts:
Original poster
Intrepidintrovert · 13/09/2020 21:41

I can't give up as I need to go back to work as does my partner and my kids need to go to school. I wish I hadn't taken my temperature and just rode it out tbh (except obviously I know that's the wrong thing to do).

OP posts:
AutumnSuns · 13/09/2020 21:41

You can pay for a private test, but that’s going to be anything up to £150. But that sucks that we are having to do that.

Original poster
Intrepidintrovert · 13/09/2020 21:44

I don't have that kind of spare money at all.

OP posts:
Canyousewcushions · 13/09/2020 21:45

I decided at just before 10am this morning to book a test and got one at 1pm, same day, just over 1 mile away. I'm not complaining!

hazandduck · 13/09/2020 21:46

Yep we’ve been trying all day and there are no tests available. I just wish there was a queuing system you could book on to instead of the unhelpful ‘try later.’

Annoyingly, I’m fairy certain we just have colds! Our kids have been so snotty and now we are but we have sore throats/coughs and no sense of smell. Very frustrating. DH is self employed and panicking about all the work he has booked in 😩

FromTheAshes · 13/09/2020 21:46

Snap. I've been trying since Friday evening. If I can't get a home test sorted tomorrow morning I'm past the 5 day cut off. I'm already resigned to me and my 3yo having to self isolate for the full period despite the likelihood of this being a simple cold. A drive in test site did become available today but by the time I'd begged a lift from my support bubble person the slots had all gone (all 11 of them, how generous).

WearyandBleary · 13/09/2020 21:46

I’ve been trying for two days. I can’t help but suspect the government is deliberately restricting tests so we can’t see how bad the spread is getting.

Canyousewcushions · 13/09/2020 21:47

A colleague said it took them a few go's but new appointments for the next day suddenly got released and they had loads of choice- maybe worth trying a few times over the next few hours?

ellieboulou33 · 13/09/2020 21:51

Nothing for me either, it's ridiculous

Torvean32 · 13/09/2020 21:52

@AHippoNamedBooBooButt

Trying to get one for dd and ds (although most likely heavy colds, schools will want a test) and it's just impossible. Well not impossible, I was offered some 25miles away but I refuse to drive 25miles for what is most likely a cold, and when we have a testing centre 1.5miles from our house. The system is dire
25 miles is nothing really. If its a cold then you'll get negative tests and you can stop isolating.

Given the obvious shortage i think you're being slightly unreasonable.

BookSkark · 13/09/2020 21:57

We drove for 29 miles - worked out as a three hour round trip by the time you factored in testing. But it was that or DD off school for 10 days and us off work for two weeks. I'm 100% sure it's just a cold with a cough and temperature, but I'd rather make the effort to get tested so we don't have to quarantine. And yes, we have many nearer sites available, but they didn't have availability, so what can you do?

AHippoNamedBooBooButt · 13/09/2020 21:59

torvean you would really drive 25miles just to be told you have a cold? That's ridiculous.
The schools have tests so if I don't have much luck getting a slot at my local test centre then I'll just ask them for one tomorrow.

AHippoNamedBooBooButt · 13/09/2020 22:03

In all fairness, the dc do not look well enough to go into school tomorrow anyway, so its no harm trying again for one closer.
3hours though? Think of the petrol!

WhatwouldRuthdo · 13/09/2020 22:04

I tried at 3am, 9am and have been trying constantly since 7pm. Coughing DC, although I’m relatively confident it’s a standard nursery cough, I’m trying to do the right thing. Not a single slot, anywhere, for drive through, walk in or postal test. And I live 2 miles from a large testing centre, which makes it even more frustrating.

Original poster
Intrepidintrovert · 13/09/2020 22:08

I guess 25 miles is pretty far for all the people who don't drive...

OP posts:
Original poster
Intrepidintrovert · 13/09/2020 22:14

The problem is people won't see it as 'Isolate or drive a bit further'. They (some people - probably increasingly more) will see the best option as 'Go back into society with no test'. I could easily have taken a couple of days off work with a 'migraine' or whatever and then gone back in. My kids could definitely have gone to school no matter how sick I am and so could my husband. Obviously they aren't as I'm being responsible, as we all should be, but how long can people do that for if it's 14 days each time?

OP posts:
AHippoNamedBooBooButt · 13/09/2020 22:25

Yes I completely agree that if people cannot get tested where it is convenient then they will just brush it off and carry on. I bet we all know someone who has lied to a school and said dc had a fever when really they had vomited and the parents just didn't want to take that 48hrs off. I work in a school and we had a lot of students off last week with a stomach ache. I wonder if that will be the new excuse as its a 1 day absence instead of 14. And therefore its just going to spread like wildfire.
The government have known for months that autumn/winter is going to be bad, and they've had plenty of time to prepare.
And fwiw I do drive, but my kids are ill, really ill, and a 50mile round trip when your ill is just awful. They need to be in bed not the car

MaudsMotorbike · 13/09/2020 22:33

I've been trying all day too. Nothing. It's very worrying - not for me, I know we've just got colds, but it's insane to think we're mid pandemic, with months to prepare for this moment - and as soon as our "world beating" test and trace system has to deal with any numbers it totally collapses.

I guess we're all just going to have to go out and catch it now. Maybe that was always the plan?

Original poster
Intrepidintrovert · 13/09/2020 23:28

I'm finding it pretty scary too.

OP posts:
wegetthejobdone · 13/09/2020 23:39

AHippoNamedBooBooButt 25miles to get result and get back to normal is nothing if you can drive. By the way postal tests are taking a lot longer to come back so its worth the effort to go to a test centre if you don't want to wait an extra 3 or 4 days for the result.