Scandal-hit testing lab must lose licence

I WENT into hospital for a fairly serious operation on the 15th October and came through the process, quite well. However, coming home a few days later coincided with the worst pandemic increases ever recorded since the incident began. Many areas in this region saw infections increase by a hundredfold – or worse.

This forced me to delay recovering from the operation by 11 days. From the 18th to the 29th of last month I didn’t dare stick my nose out the door while waiting for a downward trend of Covid infection.

It was only on the 29th of last month that I finally dared to go outside. But I was still worried about my increased vulnerability, and so when I eventually dared to go out to my local shop, I took full precautionary measures.

How did we end up in this situation, with infections suddenly rising again so quickly? It turns out that errors by a private Covid testing lab in Wolverhampton, owned by Immensa, meant that around 43,000 people were wrongly told their Covid-19 test was negative. This meant thousands of people infected with Covid were wrongly told to stop isolating. What a screw-up. Where was the oversight and scrutiny?

It was bad enough having the operation but to have my recovery delayed by a full 11 days made me angry and upset, not to mention disgusted. The lab involved in this scandal is not fit for purpose and should have its licence withdrawn.

If I have been affected, then so have many others.

I understand there is now a legal challenge being made by the Good Law Project and the Health Secretary is facing legal action over the testing fiasco and being asked to terminate the lab’s contracts immediately.

It is plain to see that the lab must lose its licence and action must be taken to properly regulate all private testing firms – now.

Stephen Farthing Hengrove, Bristol