The great travel test farce! Swab boxes lef t overf lowing
BRITAIN’S travel testing system was branded an ‘absolute mess’ yesterday after uncollected swabs were left piled high outside pharmacies.
Pictures posted online showed three drop-off boxes run by Randox, the UK’s largest PCR testing provider, overflowing with swabs.
It meant outraged customers were forced to choose between adding to the pile – risking their personal details being stolen by thieves – or shell out for a private courier.
Yesterday’s images have fuelled fears that the testing system will be unable to cope if too many Britons go abroad during the school holidays.
All travellers returning from green and amber list countries must take a test by day two after arriving back in the UK. Those who have not been fully-vaccinated must also take a test on day eight. Some countries also require a pre-holiday test to show on arrival.
It means that, were any of these types of tests left uncollected, potential burglars could work out when people were away and their homes empty.
Gavin Williams, 51, from Southfields in south-west London, said he travelled 30 minutes to the nearest Randox drop-off bin to deliver his daughter’s day two PCR test. But when he arrived, it was filled to the brim and overflowing.
Posting a picture to Twitter, the teaching assistant, who paid £43 for the tests, said he felt ‘ripped off’.
Replying with a picture of another drop-off bin with uncollected tests piled 20 boxes high, Tilly Slight posted: ‘You think that one’s bad?’
The pictures have sparked fury among travel experts, with Paul Charles, CEO of consultancy The PC Agency, saying they were ‘a symbol of the absolute mess that PCR testing has become’.
And Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel, said the watchdog had repeatedly warned the testing system would be unable to cope with too many people travelling abroad.
‘It’s particularly frustrating as Which? raised this with the Government a few months ago,’ he said. ‘The system isn’t set up for large numbers of people travelling. Now many people are travelling, the system is not working properly.’
Randox is among more than 400 private testing firms on the Governmentapproved list of providers.
According to the Government’s website, the firm charges £43 for a ‘self swab at home’ day two test. The cost for a days two and eight package is £86.
The latest controversy comes a year after Randox sent out hundreds of thousands of unsterile tests to care homes.
As a result, it was forced to recall 750,000 unused kits.
Despite this, the company was awarded a new £347million Government contract and is capable of processing around 500,000 swabs a day.
A spokesman for Randox said the firm was increasing the number of drop boxes across the UK as well as the frequency of test collections.
‘All of the sample kits pictured will be processed,’ the spokesman added.
‘It has become an absolute mess’