NEW CENTRE TESTING LIMIT SPARKS ANGER
THERE is fury in the Rhondda after it emerged that the centre set up in Porth to speed up access to testing in an area on the brink of a local lockdown was only set to offer 60 tests a day.
Council leader Andrew Morgan said he had been told that the UK Government had made a unilateral decision to limit the number of tests because of the shortage across the UK
He said that the centre itself had the capacity to offer 400 to 500 tests a day but the centre does not process the tests and the UK is facing a shortage of lab capacity to process the results.
The lower Rhondda around Penygraig, Porth and Tonypandy has seen a recent spike in cases with First Minister Mark Drakeford saying on Friday that a local lockdown could be ordered as soon as Monday if the situation is not quickly brought under control.
“The centre has 400 to 500 slots a day,” RCT Council leader Andrew Morgan told us.
“Serco said they would be leaving the site early and are only allowed to do 60 tests.”
Following this, it is understood after pressure from Welsh Government that the number of tests was then increased to 120.
Mr Morgan said that after conversations with Vaughan Gething, he had been told this was unilateral decision from the UK Government to cut capacity for all devolved nations and was contrary to a conversation Health Minister Mr Gething had had with Matt Hancock earlier on Friday.
There have been issues in the UK Government/Deloitte run Lighthouse Labs which are seemingly unable to keep up with current demand. This has seen people in South Wales told to travel as far as Inverness to secure a test.
To try and make sure that everyone in the area can get a vital test, RCT council and the local health board will be taking over the site once Serco packs up after completing its 120 tests.
Mr Morgan said: “The Welsh Ambulance Service will be conducting the tests and the health board will be using their lab capacity. I have arranged for council parking staff who would normally be in the town centre to direct traffic.”
Following a scrambled overnight response from the council, health board and Welsh Ambulance Service, 840 tests were to be available yesterday and today but this will drop significantly tomorrow when the site is solely reliant on UK Government capacity again.
Even once this was arranged late Friday night there were also issues with the online booking system. According to Mr Morgan, he was told that the UK Government booking portal would not be able to increase the number of tests available online above 120 despite the new plans put in place. He explained: “We have been putting together a work around which will possibly involve a call cen-. tre or just telling people to just turn up. The risk is that too many people arrive if we do that.
“I’m furious that the national testing has apparently restricted the tests to just 60,” Mr Morgan tweeted last night. “This world-beating UK testing system that Boris was on about is failing the UK badly and we need more testing capacity.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “NHS Test and Trace is working, our capacity is the highest it has ever been and we continue to work closely with Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to ensure local areas can access the testing they need. New booking slots for tests are made available daily for those who need them and we are targeting testing capacity at the areas that need it most, including those where there is an outbreak, and prioritising at-risk groups.”
The Welsh Government was also approached for comment.