Testing capacity - this is not okay

[Drummonderry]

Had to book a PCR in the week for DS. Closest site was 7.5 miles away. We have no car - so we had to order a postal test which took 4 days in total from order to result.

Today had to book another. Apparently zero appointments available in all of England.

How can we be in this situation 18 months into this pandemic?

( To note - we live in a dense urban centre. I have all of the major supermarkets within a 20 minute walk from my house.

I think closer testing sites exist - but the closest one on that day was 2.5 hours walk away. Note you are not allowed to use public transport or taxis and presumably anyone who gave you a lift should be prepared for a 10 day isolation for their kindness.

It is completely inane to make it hard and slow to get yourself tested.)

I had to get DD tested at the weekend and there were appointments available everywhere. I would assume this is a software blip and try again a bit later??

@Drummonderry

Had to book a PCR in the week for DS. Closest site was 7.5 miles away. We have no car - so we had to order a postal test which took 4 days in total from order to result.

Today had to book another. Apparently zero appointments available in all of England.

How can we be in this situation 18 months into this pandemic?

Hancock met his testing target of eleventy billion a day at some point last year, by counting all the tests his mate down the pub said he had ordered, and so after that all was fine and dandy. Anyway I thought that since the Saj was health minister covid had gone away, so we don't need to test, distance mask or anything else anymore. Such a shame he wasn't Health Minister sooner.

It's a error, calm down. There's been plenty of tests every day, there is probably a temporary problem with the website. We haven't run out of test capacity.

Try now ...?

Last week it showed everywhere green - but specifically nearest centre 7,5 miles ( which would have been fine if I could have used car or public transport - but too far to walk without a break feeling unwell).

This week red all of England - only Scotland green.

I’m perfectly calm - but rather stuck with all the waiting for slooooow postal tests because since last week there hasn”t been a testing site within reasonable walking distance.

( It’s not like we don’t already know that poorer households (i.e. without a car) are harder hit by COVID disruptions to their education and employment)

Must have been a blip as they show all available now

I checked again - it has opened up in my area from this morning to now offer me a center 5 miles away - but I still don’t think that’s adequate as a provision for people without transport.

And whatever the reason is for why my screen lit up red this morning - I understand once you’ve ordered the postal test you have to follow through.

It’s really not me.

I’m phoning for the second time to chase a result that has take more than 3 days to return.

The automated message has changed to say “we are receiving an extremely high number of calls …. if there are no testing sites available in your area, please wait a few hours to try again” .

And then the real person says that the turnaround target is now a response in 5 days - whereas last week they were getting most of them returned in 3 days.

There is not enough capacity in the testing system - and that will really undermine the plan of ‘let’s ease restrictions while we’re in the middle of a delta surge’.

There's plenty of capacity, just refresh it. Or look up a walk-in test site, we have a few of those round here.

They have literally re-recorded the answerphone message since last week to say ‘if nothing is showing check in a few hours’.

They know that there is a problem.

For ‘reasons’ I have had to book a lot of these over the last week. The results have returned testing site 3miles one way, 7.5 miles away and ‘none available’.

I live in the center of a dense urban area. Within a mile I have a ‘hypermarket’ branch of every major supermarket. The best of the testing site options is already not good enough, considering how important testing is. The others are flat unacceptable.

Just book a home test if you can't make it, we booked on a Wednesday afternoon and had results Friday night, so it isn't very long.

They changed the recorded message on that too - different message from last week.

Now they only follow up if no result after 5 days. It’s been 4.5 days for me.

We are easing restrictions in a delta uptick.

Testing is crucial at this point - unless this is a
stealth re-run of herd immunity strategy.

If someone is ‘marginal’ symptomatic (bear in mind Delta symptoms are much less clear) - it makes a massive difference to their willingness to self isolate if they are having to wait 24hrs or 5 days for confirmation of whether they have Covid or not.

You can have pcr tests posted out to you

@Drummonderry - I think you're getting a bit confused to be honest. The UK is testing in enormous numbers, higher than amongst any other country. Everyone else is able to book a test normally, you've come across a slight glitch. It's catastrophising to turn that into a bunch of people not isolating.

Postal ones are super quick in my experience, results the morning after posting at 2pm.

Yeah, you're determined to be right here for whatever reason but all you needed to do was click refresh or get a postal one. It'll be there the next day.

We've had to get them to chase up our hime test results as the tests we posted on Friday still haven't given us results.
They've now sent one result twice, still waiting on 3 more. It's a nightmare!

@MrsPelligrinoPetrichor they were super quick.

That’s what I expected.

Right now - specifically this week - it’s not keeping up.

Test one posted Thursday - result Sunday
Test two posted Friday - still no result - 119 won’t even chase until tomorrow because 5 days is new ‘norm’.

I’m not ‘determined to be right’ - I’m sharing my lived experience.

@walkoflifewoohoo ‘refresh’ doesn’t fix it. An unspecified ‘try again later’ admittedly does. But best ‘offer’ over ordering a lot of these this week has been 1 hour walking one way - which is a lot when you’re feeling unwell.

I did order postal tests - and they are taking a very long time to return.

This is not good enough after 18 months of pandemic, and on the cusp of dropping restrictions.

I don’t think that can be right. I ordered a home test and it arrived the next morning, result the early hours of the next morning.

DH went for a PCR yesterday, same day appointment so it can’t be the whole of England with no appointments?

Look, if they're really so ill they can't walk to the test centre then waiting a few days for a home test to come back is probably a good idea.

Let them rest etc.

I know of 3 people that have done postal tests this weekend and all had their results by yesterday afternoon/evening.

The cynical part of me feels that this a deliberate act so less people are testing, less tests = less official cases = pandemic is going away........ everything is normal again

🤷🏻‍♀️

I don’t think it’s right either.

That’s why I’m posting.

But it is how it is. The screenshot in the OP was genuine - although it does change hour by hour. The waiting times are what they are. They have put an updated recorded message on the 119 helpline which refers to limited availability and increased wait times.