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NHS Covid testing - has anyone managed to book one?

My daughter was advised to take a test after phoning her GP and then NHS24 yesterday morning, test was booked for 11am and results by 9pm last night.

This was in Scotland and surprising to get the result so quickly as I get tested at my work every week and usually have the results within 24-48 hours and it was 5 days before it came through last week, so for her to get her results within hours was a shock.

Thankfully a Negative result
 
We just managed to blag a home test kit from school owing to my condition, it wasn't easy.

That's terrible! The school aren't medics. It just seems obvious that you should be able to contact your GP, who knows your condition and probably your daughter's, and s/he can make sure you get a test if needs be. But no, it looks as though GPs are just not in the loop.
 
We have a copy of the code that was supposed to be texted to us. We're going to try our luck anyway (appointment between 1 and 1:30pm today). Will report back later...

Well it looks like we weren't registered, but because my son was shielding due to a genetic condition, we got a test. We had to show proof of my sons condition before they'd let us in though, and had to explain the situation to four different people.

If anyone goes, make sure you take a mobile phone with you because you have to keep your windows closed, and at each section they point to a mobile phone number for you to ring, so you can communicate with them (at least they did in Gloucester).
 
That's terrible! The school aren't medics. It just seems obvious that you should be able to contact your GP, who knows your condition and probably your daughter's, and s/he can make sure you get a test if needs be. But no, it looks as though GPs are just not in the loop.
GP's are having to self isolate as many can't get tested themselves.
 
My daughter was advised to take a test after phoning her GP and then NHS24 yesterday morning, test was booked for 11am and results by 9pm last night.

This reflects my experience both in Scotland and more recently in England not specifically for this, but generally. A referral from the nurse on the telephone seems to be the quickest way to access many NHS services.

Only tested people in my family and friends I know have had tests have been Hospital Drs and nurses, or admitted to hospital. Youngest sister and her partner, both Drs, tested positive and isolated but with no symptoms! Now confirmed not false positives by antibody tests. And 95yo Grampa, who was almost asymptomatic, but had a minor fall - no significant injury but paramedic noted low blood oxygen and took to hospital where they confirmed due to Covid. After a night on oxygen at Hull Royal and two weeks isolated and monitored at Beverley Community Hospital he is also fine!

So so far so good! We suspect many more of the family will have had with contact with the confirmed infections, but as none have suffered worse than a cough and aren’t in high risk categories we all just self isolated as a precaution to prevent further spread. No point consuming scarce resources unnecessarily!
 
Went to a walk-in yesterday in the off chance, after days of trying to book online. Was told there would be 30 places available on a first come first served basis at 8am today. Duly dragged the boy down again and waited hopefully with maybe 70 others. Eventually we were told that actually it was going to be appointment-only after all: they’d unexpectedly received only 25 testing kits for the day. Worker there reckoned government was deliberately squeezing supply. They’re kept in the dark about everything: advice they offer to people is contradicted the next day with no explanation. Incredible levels of patience on display all round.

That was our last chance, so we’re isolating for the next 10 days. There’s almost certainly nothing wrong with him, but he’s ticked all three of the symptom boxes to some degree, so can’t risk it. Inconvenient for us, disappointing for the kids. But without a positive test result his close contacts at school won’t be isolating, so if he does actually have it the chances of it spreading through the class seem pretty high.

The whole approach to schools assumes a functioning testing system, and it doesn’t exist. So actually it’s running on pure optimism: hopefully kids really aren’t that likely to spread it.

Absolutely everything with these guys is hit-and-hope.
After giving up yesterday I heard from a friend that people had got in, soon after we’d left. So back this morning. The manager told us while we queued that there were no tests, we should go home. At 8 they opened and started letting us in. He was lying: presumably he’d been briefed to keep the queue down, weed out those not desperate or savvy enough to ignore the explicit advice.

That’s the whole system in miniature: a system based on misdirection and manipulation that only works for those who are equipped to game it. A system made by and for people who game the system.
 
That is horrendous IMO. The very last way people should ever be filtered. Did you get a test ok?
 
That is horrendous IMO. The very last way people should ever be filtered. Did you get a test ok?
We did, right at the end of the 5 day window, and on our 3rd attempt. Lots of other veterans there. Requiring potentially sick people to gather together repeatedly in order to “qualify” for a test seems like a really counterintuitive way of controlling the disease.

Can‘t help thinking that the whole Covid crisis is just a beta testing opportunity for these people. For Deloitte we’re helping to iron out the kinks in their testing business, for the Tories it’s an interesting live experiment in how people respond to their preferred system of governance, where rules are designed to be broken on a nod and a wink and everybody assumes they’re being lied to at all times. It’s a sort of hell, really.
 
After going through the online triage at the start of last week I was offered a home test to be delivered next day.

Never arrived. The 'NHS Logistics Provided By Amazon' page still shows 'delayed' with a delivery estimate of Sept 10th.

I've completed 10 days self-isolation and symptoms are gone. Makes me wonder how many other home tests never arrive though.
 
I've just been pointed, by a science writer friend of mine to this article on the "moonshot" programme. It's a pretty good overview.

As an aside, I've been chosen at random to be sent a test; to help assess the prevalence of COVID in the general population. It'll be interesting to see if it turns up; and how long the turnaround is.
 
The private clinic self Swab PCR tests are some money, approx 200 quid a pop

i've just had my 4th done

Wow if you do some multiplication, that's quite a sum.

Even if NHS/Gov. cost comes down to £ 100 per test, x by the number of people out of the 67 million population wanting tests, every 3/4 weeks !!!!!.

The actual numbers wanting tests would be interesting, I bet one million a week would not be exaggerating and may be on the low side.

With sniffle season upon us the numbers will rise.

Interesting to read how the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 was brought under control, bearing in mind there were no tests, no cures and no vaccines then.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/...-curve-1918-spanish-flu-pandemic-coronavirus/
 
...The actual numbers wanting tests would be interesting, I bet one million a week would not be exaggerating and may be on the low side.

With sniffle season upon us the numbers will rise....

I read this morning that on a typical day in winter there will be 500 000 people developing cold-like symptoms. That's a lot of tests...
 
Can‘t help thinking that the whole Covid crisis is just a beta testing opportunity for these people. For Deloitte we’re helping to iron out the kinks in their testing business, for the Tories it’s an interesting live experiment in how people respond to their preferred system of governance, where rules are designed to be broken on a nod and a wink and everybody assumes they’re being lied to at all times. It’s a sort of hell, really.

I’m sure there’s some truth in this, the only bit I object to is the word just.
 
I read this morning that on a typical day in winter there will be 500 000 people developing cold-like symptoms. That's a lot of tests...

So maybe testing on demand just can’t be done, at least not with the technology we have. It’s not a realistic way to control the epidemic.

But then they’d have known this . . . maybe Sean was right and I was wrong in the post above about the word just. Yes. Just a beta test.
 
Wow if you do some multiplication, that's quite a sum.

Even if NHS/Gov. cost comes down to £ 100 per test, x by the number of people out of the 67 million population wanting tests, every 3/4 weeks !!!!!.

The actual numbers wanting tests would be interesting, I bet one million a week would not be exaggerating and may be on the low side.

With sniffle season upon us the numbers will rise.

Interesting to read how the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 was brought under control, bearing in mind there were no tests, no cures and no vaccines then.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/...-curve-1918-spanish-flu-pandemic-coronavirus/

I don't know what the liquid is in the sample tube, but the rest of the kit would only cost pennies.
There were a hell of a lot of people in high visibility jackets at the drive through test site though, so that must cost quite a bit.
 
So maybe testing on demand just can’t be done, at least not with the technology we have. It’s not a realistic way to control the epidemic.

In that case there has to be a higher level of restriction on which activities are permitted - you can't have it both ways round. There's actually been little improvement on the pillar 1+2 testing capacity since June. I think there's a case to re-establish the firm 2m rule immediately for example and to make it apply universally.
 
Boris just said that we're delivering more tests than Germany, Spain and France (he didn't mention Italy.) Is that true? It's always hard to tell!

And he said we've seen a surge in demand for tests. Maybe the whole problem is that there's an early cold bug doing the rounds in the UK which no-one planned for, and indeed no-one could have planned for. In other words, this is an unfortunate event due to unforeseen circumstances, and not a sign of something structurally wrong with T and T.
 


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