Testing run by Serco (read the thread)
I did a drive-through test on Saturday afternoon. Quite a long process, 1hr50 from joining the queue of cars to leaving. Most of the time you had to keep your car windows closed and engine off, so got pretty uncomfortable in the heat. A lot of the staff working seemed to be military.
There were four ‘checkpoints’, one to check/confirm your attendance (check ID, scan QR code from your phone), one where they issued the testing kit (in a plastic bag stuck under your wipers) and one where they gave instructions via phone on how to test yourself and dropped the test kit through your passenger side window. You then parked up in a parking bay and did the test, held the bag up to the window so someone could check you had everything in the bag correctly, then sealed the bag. This was then dropped in a bin at another checkpoint. At the exit someone was holding up a sign telling you to register the test.
a few things to note:
1. Take hand sanitiser (I had some in car already) as you need to clean hands before testing, though I think they might supply this if you don’t have some - it wasn’t specified in the attendance instruction.
2. The instruction sheet has very small text, it’s been printed at six sheets per page size, it was a struggle for me to read even with my reading glasses, which luckily I’d brought with me. There are nine pages of fairly dense instructions, separate sections for if you’re doing the test on others or having the test administered by staff. This could be more concise, and I don’t know who decided to try and get it all on a single sheet of A4.
3. There is muddled information about registration, something was mumbled at the first or second checkpoint about not needing registration instructions as I had the QR code (from applying online), yet at the end they really seemed to emphasise registering your test number. I had no details on how to do this, so had to call the enquiries number which is hard to get through on (usually cuts off after one ring). When I eventually got through and went through my details with them they said I didn’t need to do anything as I’d had the QR code (which is what I suspected).
No results or further communication from them yet, but they did say 48hrs to five days for results.
The queue of cars was much smaller when I left.
Have they given any further info on how many were tested on recent days? Wondering how that 100,000 target is looking. I reckon they might make it, as if they were in doubt about pulling it off they would have played the ‘Boris back to work’ card later in the week to distract from this failure.
(I am aware that the original ‘target’ was a bit dishonest as it was supposed to have included antibody testing with kits, which could easily be deployed at a large scale had they worked - so they’ve ended up having to work hard to get near this figure with conventional testing, which is a bonus really)
) we look a lot flatter in the tail of the "peak" so far...
