Sheffield student waited 14 days for Covid test results as MP slams Test and Trace 'failures'

Sheffield Hallam MP Olivia Blake has highlighted a litany of ‘failures’ with the system, which she says include an NHS doctor being unable to get tested and one constituent being advised to take a 180-mile round trip to get a test.

She has called on the Government to urgently fix the problems to protect the public and prevent more people falling through the cracks.

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“My constituents, like others up and down the country, have had a very difficult time through this crisis and many have made great sacrifices. In return for these sacrifices, they were promised a ‘world beating’ effective test, track and trace system,” she said.

“Once again, the government has not delivered on its rhetoric and it is my constituents who are paying the price for this failure.

“That’s why today I am once again calling on the Government to urgently fix the test, track and trace system.”

The Prime Minister Boris Johnson last week admitted the system needed to improve after the latest statistics showed that just 15.1 per cent of people tested at a centre received their results within 24 hours, though the Test and Trace service did manage to reach more than 80 per cent of people who were tested that week.

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Ms Blake said she was contacted just last week by a worried grandmother who said her student daughter completed the isolation period but had yet to receive her results 14 days after being tested.

The Labour MP says that woman was among dozens of constituents to have contacted her with complaints about Test and Trace, and she has written to health secretary Matt Hancock setting out some of the worst examples, which also include:

- a mental health nurse with a poorly baby, two safeguarding key workers and an NHS doctor all being unable to work because they could not get testing slots

- one Sheffield resident being offered a testing slot in Telford, with others being directed to Blackburn and Oldham

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- a number of people being told their test results were ‘probably lost’

- an elderly resident who hadn’t received his results after five days and, with no family in Sheffield, had to rely on the kindness of neighbours and volunteers for food and other essentials

- a group who returned from a holiday in Zante and self-isolated but after five members tested positive for coronavirus they were still waiting to be contacted by Test and Trace several days later.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “NHS Test and Trace is processing over 300,000 tests a day from more than 500 test centres and mobile units, with the vast majority of people reporting no issues with the process.

“We are working around the clock to make sure everyone who needs a test can get one, with the median distance to an in-person test site now just 2.9 miles.

“We are increasing testing capacity to 500,000 a day by the end of October, helping to ensure everyone who needs a test can get one and improving result turnaround times.”