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Why does private testing cost so much in the UK?

Flavour

Flavour

hang the bankers
I am going to be back in the UK for a week over Christmas -- not because I particularly want to, but because family are insisting.

In order to return home afterwards I will almost certainly need to come to the airport with a negative Covid test in hand.

I've just been looking around and basically the NHS have a bunch of drive-through testing centers where you need to make an appointment and obviously they tell you not to bother unless you're symptomatic. These tests are free.

Then there are a bunch of private clinics (talking about Manchester here) that do fast Covid tests (Antigen/PCR) but they all seem to be in the region 150 quid! Which is fucking loads of money. In Italy they generally cost €50 for the private tests (with results the same day), in Spain I got a test done for €35 recently and had results in half an hour. So why the hell is it SO much more expensive in the UK?

Wondering if I should just try and get a test done via the NHS, hard as it may be to come by an appointment.
 
Market Forces, Capitalism, Speculators, People jumping on the bandwagon, name yer poison. People are willing to pay those prices to get the tests done in a hurry. If they weren't they wouldn't charge that. I have an Indian colleague who returned to India a few weeks ago. Since the only way he could avoid 2 weeks forced quarantine on his arrival was to have a test within no more than 72hrs before his flight he had to fork out £500
 
Flavour said:
I am going to be back in the UK for a week over Christmas -- not because I particularly want to, but because family are insisting.

In order to return home afterwards I will almost certainly need to come to the airport with a negative Covid test in hand.

I've just been looking around and basically the NHS have a bunch of drive-through testing centers where you need to make an appointment and obviously they tell you not to bother unless you're symptomatic. These tests are free.

Then there are a bunch of private clinics (talking about Manchester here) that do fast Covid tests (Antigen/PCR) but they all seem to be in the region 150 quid! Which is fucking loads of money. In Italy they generally cost €50 for the private tests (with results the same day), in Spain I got a test done for €35 recently and had results in half an hour. So why the hell is it SO much more expensive in the UK?

Wondering if I should just try and get a test done via the NHS, hard as it may be to come by an appointment.
Click to expand...

The decision to travel is yours, so the argument would be then why should the NHS cover the costs of the test for your holiday? Guess it's similar to vaccinations you might need for holiday trips abroad which you'd be charged for at your GPs.

As for the private test costs, just profit motive and the market.
 
The cost of tests will come down as travel opens up and more countries allow people to enter without quarantine so long as they have a negative test. The PCR tests are the gold standard ones, Italy accepts the lesser antigen tests, which are cheaper and faster than PCR tests. It is thought that by the spring the cost will be as low as £15 for a rapid antigen test and that would be included in the cost of your flight ticket, to be done just before you get to the check in counter.
 
It is a ridiculously high sum for a test that we should be encouraging people to get.

Thora said:
I’m guessing there’s just very little demand for private tests here as the only people who need them will be maybe business travellers.
Click to expand...

Isn't that the same in Italy and Spain? I mean they have their own versions of the NHS too.
 
LynnDoyleCooper said:
The decision to travel is yours, so the argument would be then why should the NHS cover the costs of the test for your holiday? Guess it's similar to vaccinations you might need for holiday trips abroad which you'd be charged for at your GPS.
Click to expand...

My point is that if the private tests weren't so ludicrously expensive then maybe more people would take them and therefore relieve stress on NHS. If I can get a free test I will get one.
 
Flavour said:
My point is that if the private tests weren't so ludicrously expensive then maybe more people would take them and therefore relieve stress on NHS. If I can get a free test I will get one.
Click to expand...

Ah, see what you mean. Think you shouldn't be using an NHS testing slot for your holiday though.
 
Flavour said:
My point is that if the private tests weren't so ludicrously expensive then maybe more people would take them and therefore relieve stress on NHS. If I can get a free test I will get one.
Click to expand...

The government specifically states that you must not use NHS tests for travel purposes, they are solely for people with symptoms, which is fair enough.

A friend of mine runs a private ambulance service for people being sectioned and stuff and he’s branched out in to doing tests, he charges £85 for a test, but the attendance fee is £350, so only with it if you have a load of people to be tested.
 
wemakeyousoundb said:
Didn't some of the Italian airports offer test and wait on arrival a while back?
Or was that just for internal flights?
Click to expand...

You can get a test on arrival in Italy at Rome or Milan in the airport, not a great idea as if positive you must isolate at your expense in Italy, if you test positive in the U.K. you can isolate at home.

Also flying between Milan and Rome everyone gets tested for free, to demonstrate how the future could look.
 
To enter China at the moment you need (among many other things) negative PCR and IgM tests issued 24 hours before departure. All test reports from BioGrad Clinic have just been banned, due to the high number of UK citizens arriving and testing positive after having obtained their negative results from that provider.

I dunno how that's happened, but worth knowing when you're choosing who to get your test through.
 
Mrs Dess has been quoted £50 at Edinburgh travel health centre. However, you have to pick up the results in person, and although they have appointments available they cannot guarantee your results at weekends. They told her to go to Boots, although many of them don't do PCR tests.
 
TUI are doing self testing kits for £70, and testing at airports for £99. They say these are for TUI customers but maybe you can contact their testing partners directly.
www.tui.co.uk

Helping you with COVID-19 testing | Travel With Confidence | TUI.co.uk

We’ve partnered with government-approved providers to help you get the COVID-19 tests you need to travel.
www.tui.co.uk www.tui.co.uk
Other travel firms and airlines might be doing something similar.
 
dessiato said:
Mrs Dess has been quoted £50 at Edinburgh travel health centre. However, you have to pick up the results in person, and although they have appointments available they cannot guarantee your results at weekends. They told her to go to Boots, although many of them don't do PCR tests.
Click to expand...

Yes, I think the higher costs reflect their assurances to get the result back in a certain timescale which is crucial for travel.
 
I tried to book with Boots but the next available appointments in the closest stores (Birmingham & Milton Keynes) were in January.. probably going to get the home tests you do yourself and send away for the results... still over 100 quid each though :rolleyes:
 
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