Care worker visits six pharmacies in bid to find a lateral flow test kit
A SOUTH Derbyshire mum working in care says she cannot get a Covid test to ensure she is safe to go into work.
Natalie Jordan visited six pharmacies on Wednesday January 5, and could not find any lateral flow tests.
And as the Government promises to send 600,000 packs of tests to key workers’ homes each day, at the time of writing, she could also not order one from gov.uk
The Egginton mum is one of the many people across the county struggling to get a box of lateral flow tests.
She said: “I start a new office job as a care provider on Monday so I want to check I am OK, and I also want to check if I am OK before I go for a meal in a restaurant next week.”
The list of pharmacies Natalie tried are as follows:
■ Hilton Pharmacy, Welland Road
■ Dean & Smedley, Hilton
■ Etwall Pharmacy
■ Morningside Pharmacy, Mickleover
■ Asda pharmacy, Burton
■ Willington Pharmacy, Willington
She also said her daughter who lives in Derby tried to get her some but couldn’t find any at the pharmacies she visited.
At the time of contacting us, the Government website for ordering lateral flow tests was not letting her order any tests either.
Natalie said: “Before the Government issues statements or requests that more people do tests they should make sure they can supply the demand for LFTS.”
The Burton Mail contacted two of the pharmacies Natalie had visited (Welland Road pharmacy and Etwall pharmacy) and they confirmed that they had no tests available to collect.
A spokesperson from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), which covers most of the work previously done by NHS Test and Trace, said: “The UK’S testing programme is the biggest in Europe with over 400 million tests carried out since the start of the pandemic.
“We are delivering record numbers of lateral flow tests to pharmacies across the country, with nearly eight million test kits being made available to pharmacies this week (3 January onwards) alone.
“We have made 100,000 more PCR booking slots available per day since mid-december and we are continuing to rapidly expand capacity – with over half a million tests carried out on 23 December alone and delivery capacity doubled to up to 900,000 PCR and LFD test kits a day.
“If you have not been able to get the test you need from gov. uk, please keep checking every few hours as more PCR and LFD tests become available every day.”