What's really going on inside our Covid testing centres? A north Northants testing site worker speaks out

"We are having to turn away nearly as many people as we're testing at the moment."

Those are the words of a worker on the front line of Covid testing in north Northants who spoke out as the testing system across the whole country became stretched to breaking point.

The woman, who works in one of our three permanent testing centres in north Northants, spoke to the Northants Telegraph on condition of anonymity. Corby and Kettering established indefinite centres in James Ashworth Square and on the London Road car park at the beginning of August. Wellingborough opened theirs in the Market Square toward the end of August. A regional testing centre opened in Kettering last week and there are also mobile centres that travel to where there is most need in the county.

"We did a soft opening at first and we were just testing about 100 people per day so we could test out the system," said the testing centre worker.

"Most people working there didn't have any experience but the training was excellent. We very quickly got up to 150 a day just at our site, mainly from walk-ins. The others in north Northants were similar.

"It worked really smoothly. The town centre locations are really good.

"Then there was some publicity and it went up from 150 a day to about 300. Around the August bank holiday weekend we did 650 per day. It was pretty astonishing. I suppose people had been going to parties and pubs and had maybe been around someone who'd tested positive.

"When you consider the population of the town, that's a really high proportion of people who were getting tested. In about two or three weeks we'd tested 10,000 people.

"We did have the odd one coming in drunk but because it's a self-test we couldn't help them. We had lots who'd been sent by their employers and we even had a sports team. Some of them were symptomless but the message was just to get tested and we were allowed to give anyone who wanted one a test."

The system was running smoothly and despite being extremely busy, staff were able to keep up with demand.

That all changed nearly two weeks ago when workers were suddenly told that the following day (Monday, September 7) walk-ins would be stopped and an appointment-only system would be adopted. Although initially the government didn't publicise the reasons why, it emerged in the following days that there were serious capacity issues at processing laboratories.

"From that day on, for every 100 we let in, we'd have to turn 100 away," said the worker.

"Everyone had to have an appointment. We're given a few exemptions every day - for example some have had doctor's notes or there was one person who was in the army who was being deployed.

"It's all done on regional averages - so for example if Northamptonshire is allocated 1,000 tests per day and we do 650, the other sites can't do any more than 350 between them.

"We can only test so many people in a day."

Many people have vented their frustrations on social media after being offered testing sites as far away as Aberdeen and Liverpool.

Our insider said: "If you're being offered a test in Scotland, it's because that's currently the nearest place with capacity. The website is obviously not great and because everyone's trying to just use one website at the same time it doesn't work that well.

"For the last fortnight our average has been about 150-200 tests per day but that's now well staggered through the day whereas before we were getting them between nine and five.

"We are having to turn people away. We're turning away nearly as many people as we're testing. People are very understanding. They know it's not our fault.

"We need another lab. I don't think there's another way around it."

The worker said that there has been a big increase in children coming through the doors since schools reopened.

"I understand people are worried and I'd do the same if it were my kids. I can see both sides of it.

"When we turn people away, we do often see them coming back again a bit later in the day with an appointment so the message is just to keep trying. There are appointments available.

"We're still open. We're not just standing around doing nothing. There are appointments being put on the website at all times of the day so just keep trying the website."

The government refuses to reveal how many people are being tested in each town per day but during the past week, Corby has had seven positive cases, Kettering has had 16 cases, Wellingborough has had seven cases and East Northamptonshire has had six.