First mass testing centre saw just 86 people on day one
SLOW TAKE-UP OF SERVICE FOR PEOPLE WITHOUT COVID SYMPTOMS
NOTTINGHAM’S first mass testing service for people who are not showing signs of having Covid has got off to a slow start, health bosses have admitted.
The site, at Djanogly Leisure Centre, in Forest Fields, is now fully open and people don’t need to book - they can just turn up and get a test, but only a trickle of people are using the service.
Around one in three people infected with Covid show symptoms, so it is hoped mass testing can identify them and get them to isolate.
But only 86 people turned up for tests on the first day of the service at Djanogly Leisure Centre – with 275 needed for the service to break even financially.
It follows considerable confusion - and scepticism - about the roll-out of mass testing in the city and county.
After what the Government described as successful a pilot scheme in Liverpool, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire were each given 10,000 rapid testing kits at the start of November and told to expect more.
But the director of public health for Nottinghamshire had previously expressed concerns about the widespread use of the kits, and for weeks public health bosses were unable to say how they would be used.
The Government gave limited information about how the 10,000 tests should be used, who should administer them, or what results they hoped to see.
It was more than two months before the first centre opened to the public, and now health bosses have said just 284 people came for a test in the first four days since it opened last Wednesday - about a quarter of what is needed to make the site financially viable.
But more sites are opening elsewhere in the county, and health experts say they are confident the numbers will start to pick up.
Sites at Oak Tree Leisure Centre, in Mans
field, and at Framework, in London Road, Nottingham opened yesterday and another testing centre at Mansfield Football Club is due to open tomorrow.
Other sites in Worksop are due to open next week and the week after.
The sites are located in areas where it is believed there is a high prevalence of Covid and relatively low take-up of testing.
Roz Howie, one of the health bosses behind the mass testing rollout, spoke about the take-up levels during a Covid meeting at Nottinghamshire County Council on Monday.
She said: “At the moment, we know that to financially get a balance we have to do 240 tests a day at the Oak Tree Leisure Centre (in Mansfield).
“Early days at Djanogly show that we are way short of that.
“On Wednesday (January 20), we had 86 tests (at Djanogly Leisure Centre), we need 275 to break even.
“On Thursday we had 83, Friday we had 86 and Saturday 29, but we did do a shorter day.
“We are doing some really targeted (marketing), and I’m really quite positive about Oak Tree Leisure Centre, because it’s right next door to a massive Tesco, and I think we can definitely encourage staff and shoppers to attend that site.
“We have had assurance from the Secretary of State that any costs incurred that are deemed reasonable will be covered.
“The conversations from Anthony [May, chief executive of the county council] and Jonathan [Gribbin, director of public health for Nottinghamshire] are that if the value of undertaking this, and accessing our hard-to-reach groups and case finding and reducing transmission outweighs the financial element of it then we should absolutely continue to roll this out.”
A council report on the subject states: “For each test carried out the authority will receive the equivalent of up to £14 (in cash and/or materials and supplies).
“This reimbursement is subject to uptake which remains uncertain at this stage.
“Furthermore, financial modelling suggests that small test sites may not be cost-effective. “Therefore it may be that some of the cost of the initial pilots will need to be funded from the contingency budget … which is currently judged to be more than sufficient to cover this financial risk for the duration of the initial pilot.”