Isle of Wight test for key worker

A KEY worker who was forced to take a 100-mile round trip including boarding a ferry to the Isle of Wight from Portsmouth for a coronavirus test has described the system as a ‘mockery’.

The NHS Covid-19 app has been sending residents in Hampshire and Surrey to the Isle of Wight test centre – while directing islanders to take the same trip in the opposite direction.

It comes after Portsmouth’s coronavirus test centre, in Tipner, was closed without war ning last week.

Martin Baker, a technical trainer who lives 50 miles away from the Isle of Wight, in Far nham, Surrey, said he developed a cough and fever on Tuesday morning.

Mr Baker, 49, drove to his workplace in Southampton to pick up key items from a distance so he would be able to isolate and continue his job from home, while also knowing there was a new test centre ‘200 metres away’.

But the NHS Covid-19 app told him t he nearest site where tests were available was on the Isle of Wight.

The Department of Health has since confirmed the app directs users to test centres using their home postcode, not their current location – though the Southampton Airport test centre is located between Mr Baker’s home town and the Isle of Wight.

Mr Baker told the PA news agency: ‘Despite being within visual distance of the test centre in Southampton, I was directed to go to the Isle of Wight.

‘So of course, even though it’s a free test, I still got lifted with nearly £100 in ferry fees for the same-day retur n.’