300 SLOTS GO UNBOOKED AT TEST SITE
‘It’s so frustrating,’ says council boss
JUST a quarter of the 400 slots available at a local Covid testing service were booked this week – after capacity at a regional centre was unexpectedly increased.
Stoke-on-trent City Council doubled the number of tests available at the Fenton Manor facility on Monday and Tuesday, following high demand during the pilot scheme’s first two weeks.
But only around 100 tests were booked over the two days – which council officials believe was due to more tests being made available at the bet365 Stadium regional centre.
In recent weeks North Staffordshire residents have struggled to book tests at the bet365 site – with some being offered appointments hundreds of miles away – which prompted the city council to work with Staffordshire County Council and the local NHS to launch the local service.
This service costs the councils and NHS up to £250,000 for 500 tests – but much of this relates to the processing of swabs, which is not needed if tests are not carried out.
City council leader Abi Brown admitted that it was a ‘frustrating’ situation – and says it could be avoided if the authorities were granted more responsibility for running testing services in the area.
The Sentinel revealed yesterday that the two councils wrote to Health Secretary Matt Hancock asking for the government to fund an expanded local testing service, which would include processing at the Royal Stoke University Hospital’s labs. But the authorities are still waiting for a response, after submitting detailed and costed plans with the Department of Health two months ago.
Mrs Brown said: “Over the last few weeks we have seen issues with the testing at the hb bet365 Stadium. d But this week there has been an increase in testing availability at the site. We don’t know if this is just temporary or whether it will continue – we don’t get told how many tests will be available at the centre ahead of time.
“We arranged the tests at Fenton Manor at the end of last week. But we believe that the increased availability at Stoke City is why there was lower demand.
“It is frustrating, because we don’t know what is going to happen with the regional testing centres.
“This is why we have written to Matt Hancock asking the government to fund our local testing solution. As well as taking pressure off the national testing programme, it could also mean that local people are able to get their results more quickly.”
At the moment the councils are deciding week-by-week whether to continue running the local testing service, which has used venues in Burton and Stafford as well as Fenton Manor. Around 1,800 people have made use of the service so far.
The councils are effectively asking the government to devolve funding and responsibility for the testing process in Stoke-on-trent and Staffordshire on a more permanent basis.
This would see swabs processed at the Royal Stoke and other local NHS sites, instead of being sent to national government labs, which have been hit by delays due to high levels of demand.
But expanding local lab capacity would require additional funding, which is why the councils cannot move forward without government support.