Plymouth Council leader Tudor Evans has called for the Health Secretary Matt Hancock to sort out the ‘shambolic’ booking system which is preventing people from being tested for COVID-19.
Following last week’s warning about the increase in the number of positive cases in Plymouth, it is even more important that people with symptoms should be able to easily book a test.
He said: “We have a drive-in testing site here in Plymouth and rumours of its demise are greatly exaggerated. It is very much open. Yet we have been hearing reports of people being told they can’t get a test in Plymouth and are being offered places as far away as Taunton in Somerset - almost 75 miles away, and a 2.5 hour bus journey, and Launceston in Cornwall which is well over an hour’s travel by road.”
“This shambolic booking system needs to be sorted out right now. This city has had a wake-up call with a recent increase in cases, we are asking people with symptoms to get tested, and when people try to do the right thing, it should be far easier for them. We were so concerned about this last week that our NHS partners in the city had to put in place an additional service for those with symptoms who couldn’t get tested.
“We are in a pandemic, we are told repeatedly that this country has capacity to test on an unprecedented scale and yet we are hearing complaints from Plymouth people trying but failing to book a test."
As well as writing to the Health Secretary, the Council Leader has written to Dido Harding, head of the NHS Test and Trace programme, who has recently been appointed interim chair of the new National Institute for Health Protection.
He added: “This situation could not happen at a worse time. We are seeing an increase in cases, we are all being encouraged to get back to the office and our kids back to school. How can it be in September - months into the pandemic - that a worrying number of Plymouth people are struggling to get a test in their own city?”
If you have symptoms please book a test as normal via the Government website. If you are unable to book a slot, email d-ccg.devon.urgenttesting@nhs.net and you will be contacted by someone who will direct you to the nearest testing centre. You can check your symptoms via 111 online or calling 111.
The city’s Public Health Team have been in touch directly with the Department for Health Social Care who say that while the service is currently very busy, they would ask anyone who tries to book a test and is unable to do so, or who is offered a location or time which is not convenient, to wait a few hours and then try again.