Letter: Is There a Secret Priority That Bans Children at Covid Test Centres?

Published on: 16 Sep, 2020
Updated on: 16 Sep, 2020

From: Ben Paton

In response to: Finding a Test Site is a World-Beating Test of Your Patience, Or Temper

Our MP says “…In some isolated cases people have not been able to secure one locally ”. Some isolated cases? Hardly. At present, I suspect most requests are being refused. Less government propaganda would allow more realistic expectations and less stress.

My impression from many, many phone calls is that the call centre staff don’t offer tests to children at all. It looks as if there’s a secret prioritisation system.

But you can’t get your child back to school unless you have a Covid test or you take a leaf out of the government’s book and make it up.

From the numbers quoted in your story, (five tests in half an hour) the test centre would be running about 100 tests a day, on a “capacity” of 1,000. That’s a paltry 10% utilisation.

And in response to Jules Cranwell’s comment on: Woman With No Covid Test Booking Weeps As Guards Refuse Entry to Onslow Centre

Why should anyone have to travel to Camberley just to pick up a test package? It’s not necessary to drive 15 to 20 miles to do a test you could do at home.

They could put a test in the post and save everyone time and money. This government can’t run a fish and chip shop.

It should offer contracts to pay £x per test and invite pharma companies to run the tests. £x has got to be less than the £99 it costs to get a test done through the post.

If someone can charge £99 per test and if they can process a few hundred an hour then the testing service is a licence to print money. There should be at least a dozen credible suppliers who can do better than whoever is running this farce now.

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