UKH

Having come down with some cold-like symptoms, and being at work, I decided to try to get tested. Not driving, drive thru test was out of the question, so I tried to see if there was a local facility.

I rang 119, but the service immediately said no tests were available, but to try again later (huh?).

I tried again later, and got in a phone queue. Which then simply dropped the call after about fifteen minutes on hold.

I then tried the online form. After entering all sorts of personal information, and struggling to get a Captcha thing to show me a test, and then confirm, I added some more personal information, at which point, it said it would confirm my identity with TransUnion. Which said I didn't exist.

So I started from scratch, went through the whole painful process, and got rejected again.

Looked up TransUnion: ah; a credit reference agency. I don't have a credit card, therefore, I don't exist...

So I tried ringing 119 again. This time, I navigated differently, asking for help with the online form. After a 10 minute hold, a nice lady confirmed my details, and accessed my previous attempts, and completed the application.

So we'll see if a test kit arrives.

I hate to think how my old mum would have got on, trying to fight her way through this process... She would probably just have given up. No wonder they're not hitting their testing targets.

This might explain my first attempt:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/24/coronavirus-home-test-kits-ru...

They’re sending them out to schools ahead of the kids going back. 

Depending where you live, there might be local testing routes you can access if you’re connected to a school, nursery, care home (staff in those are being routinely tested, at least where I work) or workplace. 

About 10 per school, allegedly. 

Yes. 

Jesus f*cking Christ. It's almost as if someone hadn't thought of getting some test kits for schools in time for the start of term. Better sack some civil servants for that as it's obviously not something the Education Secretary could be held accountable for.

That's ten more than virtually any business/company has immediate access to.

Good point. On second thoughts, I think it's excellent preparation for start of term. I think Gavin Williamson deserves a promotion, and Johnson is the best PM ever. They've done such a good job throughout the pandemic that it sickens me that moaning minnies should criticise from the sidelines.

My girlfriend just called the local testing site (Bristol airport) and booked a drive up slot for 2 hours after, no I.D check etc they just take your email.

... and that it was their satisfaction to close your case with the knowledge of a job well done?

Perhaps the programme has been created by Buddhists, with the idea in mind of the self (and 'I') being illusory?

Stop being such a drama queen.
As you obviously have an opinion on this, how many test kits do you think they should have?
 

They are only to supplement the normal testing routes, for kids they think wouldn’t otherwise get tested. 

Nonsense.  My work is testing all 3000ish on site weekly, and any responsible employer would be doing the same.

Have to admit me and my wife found it very easy to book online a couple of weeks ago. 

Er, the same number as they have staff?  Which will usually be more than 10 unless you're talking a tiny village school.

For a home kit? When my wife and I tried to get a drive through test, it was a doddle. Trying to get a test* for my daughter however, though, was like pulling teeth.

*Getting a home test kit was impossible, finding a drive through you could register an U18 was also very tricky.

What a stupid question. I think there should be a testing strategy for schools that allows them to stay open without spreading the virus when someone catches covid. I don't know what the best strategy is, but my gut instinct is that it probably isn't allocating 10 tests per school. 

It’s just a gesture. The testing capacity is what already exists and is being planned. 

Same here, went online at approx 8am and got tests at 10;30am

NHS or Private tests?
 

Is there already an effective testing strategy for schools in place, and these additional 10 are unnecessary then? I don't understand why a "gesture" is appropriate. Is there, or isn't there, an effective - or at least credible - testing strategy for schools in place? 

Test every single member of teaching staff in the country?
That's over 700000 test kits that would be needed.

Why is it a stupid question?
You obviously think ten isn't sufficient, so I assume that you must have some idea of how many you think is enough.
As for actual testing, it will be the same for other workers.  However, I do think Teachers are classed as Essential Workers and therefore get some priority.  

Yes.  More than once; ideally once every couple of weeks.  Testing is key, it can reduce the need for other measures which are harming the economy far more than the cost of those tests.

Best get them manufactured, then.

How about the other 25 million workers in the UK that are also needed to keep the economy going?
Test them as well?

Schools pose a specific challenge just like healthcare (and they are now being tested frequently).

But yes, test everyone.  Keep ramping it up and developing new testing technology so we can get to the point that we can test literally everyone as frequently as possible (the spit tests are a big advance here).  With that we should be able to pretty much wipe it out because we'll know exactly where it is.

And then with all that tech, how about we get rid of some other nasty diseases too?

You make it sound so easy.
Test all Teaching Staff this week.
Test all employees as a matter of course.
Rid the world of other nasty diseases, etc.
If only that could magically happen. It isn't that easy though, because we live in the real world where things just don't happen because they sound good on a bit of paper or text on an Internet page.

That is the issue, the capapbility to manfacture them in vast numbers.Its the same issue with alot of these kits when you start looking at the specifics. There is not the instant capability to do that.

There isn't but we can ramp it up as quickly as possible.  The WHO has been saying this from the start, and it was ignoring it that led us to problems.

I didn’t say a gesture was appropriate. As far as I know, the testing strategy for schools is the same as everywhere else - if you have symptoms, get tested. I don’t think there’s a problem with testing capacity at the moment. Where I work people get tested same or next day and get the results the day after. 
 

Staff in care homes are tested weekly; residents monthly. 
 

I think more testing in schools would be worthwhile. 

Are you sure? Are you involved with the manufacturers?From all I have read and heard there is not the manufacturing capability to just instantly ramp up test kits and other forms of testing processes.

The WHO probably does not have a view on manufacturing capability.

Because it assumes that the correct strategy is to have a flat number of tests allocated to each school. That's stupid. 

No, I obviously think that there should be a testing strategy for schools that allows them to stay open without spreading the virus. Which is why I said that. 

But I thought we'd only using around half of our daily testing capacity for the last 3 months. Surely this suggests that ramping it up dramatically to do more precautionary testing when schools go back should be possible?

Test arrived, performed, packaged. Off to post box...

Registering URL needed www prefix for Chrome to go there; it searched for the term instead.

Registering form has the wrong form of example reference when asking for the email reference (it provided an alphanumeric reference as per the test kit URN, rather than the all-numeric email reference...).

It took me a while to figure out how to open the biohazard bag... There's an outer pouch (presumably for paperwork) that I bet people will use.

Extensive process feedback has been provided. And no doubt will be ignored...

Depends which testing kit you are talking about. 
 

The big numbers are in the automated systems which can really  churn through them. But I will bet you there is a long lead time in the delivery of those machines.

And  the fast turnaround tests are limited in number.  
 

it would probably take the manufacturerof each to explain the build and lead time processes. 

Also  do not forget that other countries also want the same kit. 
 

It’s not an instant off the shelf capability. 

I registered for one of those monitoring apps some time ago and I suspect that I have been included in an NHS/Imperial/IPSOS MORI test as a result.   I filled in some forms on-line and they sent me a test.  I started to flick through the documentation (bloke-with-instructions-style) and then realised that I needed to pay attention.  For those who find such things difficult, this one is not simple.  It has gotchas like a test tube with a label on which to write you name, on which you must not write your name.

I found the test profoundly unpleasant - I was a gagging, sneezing, streaming mess.  God help anyone in the vicinity if I were to have the virus.  The correct 'family word' to describe such a condition is 'contaminacious'.

I feel for anyone who has to take the test regularly.  Frankly, I think it wouldn't take long for me to start to cheat

My wife booked a test online for her and my son on Monday. They had the test Tuesday morning and she got her result Wednesday morning. However apparently there was glitch in the IT system that has delayed my son's result...we were told this morning it could be another 48 hours, so that'll be 5 full days since we booked the test. Really poor.

Private company providing them.  No one allowed on site without a test in the last week.  

It's utterly unacceptable that the NHS and schools aren't doing the same.

Thanks for the reply.
As for your test requirements, that would be in the region of 2 million people that would need to be routinely tested for England alone.
Is that actually possible?
Also, why just restrain it to those two professions?
There are a further 23 million employees in the UK that also by your theory need testing to keep the economy going.  Do we somehow test them as well?
It's all very well having this vision of what is ideally needed to combat Covid-19, but we have to be pragmatic in what is actually achievable and I'm afraid to say unlimited testing isn't one of the options available.

 

Having done a DIY one which was as you describe, then one at a test centre and one at a hospital in close succession (I thought the medical problem was COVID but it wasn't, it was something more serious for which I got admitted for a few days) I find people overdo the DIY ones.  The hospital and test centre just briefly passed the swab over my tonsils and did a quick twist in a nostril, which wasn't *nice* but wasn't anything like the overdone way I did it when I did one myself.

That's interesting - the DIY version leaves no room for a quick wipe - even the best I could do made me feel as though I had been insufficiently diligent.  On the other hand, the rational side of my brain was saying that it had to be overkill.   Perhaps erring on the side of caution to make sure they get a usable sample.

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/testing

For 2 months now there has been capacity for circa 350k tests a day.  Only 150k are being used.  So without increasing anything there is spare capacity for 1.4m tests a week.  So why is 2m a unachievable? 

Testing at that level would likely suppress spread to the extent that we  could relax most restrictions.  It'd be cheaper than the partial lockdown shambles we have now.

Also an employer has legal duty to minimise risks to their staff.  Private companies are proving that this is a practical and achievable way to do so.  The government have access to this testing capacity, why aren't they using it? if I worked in the public sector, and public facing (hence NHS and schools mostly) I would be really hacked off at the govt penny pinching on me like that.

The instructions say to twirl away for 10-15 seconds. So I imagine that's what people will try to do.

Presumably because, as you point out, the capacity is 1.4 million, not 2 million.  A 40% increase in a national effort is not trivial.

Many school employees aren’t employed by the government.

Yes, and that's what I did when I did my own, but the professionally administered ones definitely didn't, not even near.

Of course, it struck me that I bet TransUnion are probably getting paid for every 'identity check' performed.

What's the betting that TransUnion is somehow related to one of Cummstains' mates...?

Vanishingly small since it is a huge publicly-owned multinational  on the scale of Equifax and Experian, but with a better (not perfect) record of data protection.

I'm not sure if you are referring to private schools, or to state schools whose teachers are privately contracted. In the latter, their obligation to reduce HSE risks caused by their activities extends to anyone, not just direct employees, so there is effectively no difference between a direct employee and a sub contractor. This is the same for all businesses in respect of HSE law.

Obviously private schools would be a different case.

Edit: but legally I believe in the case of a state school, the responsibility would sit with the local authority anyway, not the government.

Thanks. I'll cross that off the gripe list, then. Shame they couldn't have used the other eight pieces of personal information to corroborate my identity.