Minister said trip of ‘just 50 miles’ for test showed system worked

A HEALTH minister told Matt Hancock that the Covid testing network was “definitely working” after she secured a test “just” 50 miles from where she lived.

Helen Whately, the social care minister, made the 100-mile round trip in September 2020, before home testing kits became available to the public.

At the time, some were being told that the nearest free slot at a testing centre was hundreds of miles away, prompting widespread accusations from the public that the system was a shambles. But Ms Whately seemed to regard her long journey as a triumph for her department.

A relative of the minister had developed a temperature and, in a Whatsapp conversation with Mr Hancock, Ms Whately bemoaned the fact that they needed to produce a negative test to prove they did not have Covid.

She told Mr Hancock on Sep 17: “They won’t XXXX until XXXX has had a negative test result (but no tests available). Are we changing the policy any time soon?!”

Mr Hancock replied: “Has XXXX still got a temperature?”

Ms Whately responded: “No. But they reckon their policy is in line with govt guidelines [...] so the fact temperature has gone down makes no difference.”

The next day she messaged Mr Hancock to say: “Good news from my mystery shopping of our testing system - by repeat visits to testing app as advised have got test for XXXX (who is isolating with XXXX) just 50 miles from home.”

The next day she updated Mr Hancock by saying: “Negative result arrived for XXXX 24 hours after XXXX test, so my mystery shopping shows the system is definitely working, at least for some.” Mr Hancock replied: “For MOST!” At the time, home testing kits were not available, meaning that anyone needing to be tested for Covid had to use a dedicated website to book a slot at a testing centre, where they would swab themselves and send their sample off to a laboratory, waiting anything up to a week for the results.

In the days before Ms Whately’s message, the Government had been berated over constant stories of people having to travel huge distances to be tested.

In east London, people with Covid symptoms were told the nearest availability for tests was in Oldham, 208 miles away, Coventry, 130 miles away, or Newport in Wales, 167 miles away. People living in Reading were told to drive 70 miles south and get a ferry to the Isle of Wight if they wanted to be tested.

The problem persisted for weeks after Ms Whately declared that the system was “definitely working”.

Two weeks after she sent the message, a pensioner with diabetes and high blood pressure who lived in Bournemouth was told that his nearest available testing centre was in Perth, Scotland, 500 miles from his home.