FAILING THE TEST Nurses forced to drive TWO hours to get tested and are being turned away, Matt Hancock told
NURSES sick with coronavirus symptoms are driving two hours only to be turned away at testing centres, nursing boss said.
Health bosses clashed today over Matt Hancock's claims NHS workers are failing to bring themselves forward to be tested.
The Health Secretary told the Commons Health Committee today that the current testing levels were "frustrating" after blaming low numbers on lack of demand.
He said at the daily briefing earlier this week: "The reason the figure of numbers of testing done have been flat has been because of not enough demand rather than not enough capacity."
He claimed testing numbers had flatlined - failing to meet his own target of 25,000 a day - because NHS workers didn't come forward to be swabbed over Easter weekend.
But Royal College of Nursing boss Dame Donna Kinnair dismissed his claims, saying nurses were going to desperate lengths to get tested.
She said: "What I'm hearing from the front line is nurses are sometimes just driving two hours, feeling very unwell, with possible symptoms of coronavirus and driving to a testing station.
"Sometimes if you haven't got an appointment you're turned away only to be told to come back another time.
"So we need some really clear direction on how we can access testing both in the NHS but more so for social care, because they don't have the same infrastructure as the NHS."
Mr Hancock repeated his claims lack of demand was driving numbers down - and they were able to conduct 38,000 tests a day.
He said: "We have capacity for 10,000 more tests a day than we did yesterday, which I find, given the pressures on testing, is frustrating."
When asked if he could meet the 100,000 daily target by the end of the month, Mr Hancock said capacity wasn't the problem.
He said: "I don't think if we'd announced the 100,000 target a couple of weeks earlier as you suggest we would be in any different position now because we were continuing the drive to increase testing all along."
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Mr Hancock said testing figures were at 18,000 yesterday, up from 15,994 from the day before.
22 drive-through centres have opened across the UK to enable more testing for frontline staff, he added
These are in locations including Glasgow, Cardiff, Belfast, Nottingham, Leeds and London, with the aim to open 50 centres across the country.
"Once we've got those established we're going to have mobile units and then when the technology is good enough we will have home testing kits as well," he said.
Mr Hancock also announced today other key workers - including police officers and firefighters - would be able to be tested.
This is in addition to all social care staff and residents symptomatic with the virus, which Mr Hancock announced on Wednesday.
He added that "just asking people to self-isolate is not going to achieve the quarantine you want to".
This morning, Justice Secretary Robert Buckland admitted that if the UK had been faster with testing, the death rate in Britain would be much lower.
A spokesman for the PM echoed Mr Hancock's comments, saying: "You can obviously see there is a significant gap between the number of tests conducted and the actual capacity available."
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