Walk-in LFT test centres

[Chimpychoo]

Hi,

Some family members are visiting the UK from abroad for Christmas. They're vaccinated and have booked all their necessary tests. They're travelling between a few different sets of family members, and wanted to test every few days to try and avoid spreading anything. Does anyone know if tourists can use the walk-in LFT centres? I think there's one near London Bridge? (don't go into London very often, but remember seeing it a few months ago) Or are these only for UK residents? They are British, and travelling on British passports, but just been living abroad for around a decade, and were vaccinated where they live.

Is anywhere doing walk in LFT at the moment? I thought you could only pick up tests for home use?

I don't know. I remember seeing a walk-in centre near London Bridge a few months ago, but not really been in London since then, and can't think of any near me. NHS website keeps crashing for me whenever I look too, so I haven't been able to find out on there.

Surely their best bet is to grab a pack of home tests from a pharmacy, or order from the government website (when it's back working again!) and then they can test as and when they wish? The whole point of LFTs is that they don't need special processing and can be done anywhere by anyone. It's sensible of them to plan for doing it :)

Can’t you just pick them up a couple of boxes, or whoever they are staying with?

My mum has a box in for when they arrive. Maybe they'll just stick with that. I just wasn't sure if, because they're effectively tourists, they could just use the free ones.

LFTs are free. Anyone can pick them up, you don't need to have symptoms or fit any conditions at all.

As above, you just walk into a pharmacy and ask for some LFTs. I did it today. No ID needed. No money needed.

I’m in England, to get LFTs from the pharmacy I need a code that I get from the NHS, for which I guess you must be eligible for NHS care. DSis had lived abroad for 20+ years and is not eligible.

Yeah my pharmacy insist on a code which apparently I can get online. Which is why i no longer bother doing them.

Are you confusing LFT with PCRs?

LFT can be taken at home. Free to collect from pharmacy and instant results at home. These are for asymptomatic testing.

Pcr tests are for symptoms or close contacts. There are some walk in pcr centres about still.

I was in the pharmacy (in England) today picking up a prescription and asked for a box of LFTs. They said I had to register online and get a code (or ring 119 to get the code) so I blithely said I would just order online as usual. Only to discover there are none online so I got the code. It was easy enough but I am not sure if a tourist would be eligible.

Does it matter if tourists are eligible? As they would be testing to protect people who live here, the people they are visiting can just order tests for them to use.

Does it matter if tourists are eligible? As they would be testing to protect people who live here, the people they are visiting can just order tests for them to use.

@amicissimma

Does it matter if tourists are eligible? As they would be testing to protect people who live here, the people they are visiting can just order tests for them to use.

Yes, that would make sense. I got the impression from the OP that they wanted to sort out their own but that may not be possible.