Coronavirus testing descends into chaos after being taken off army and made private

The switchover from army-run mobile coronavirus testing to private companies has immediately been met with two major bungles across Greater Manchester.

An outbreak of 12 cases at Manchester’s Royal Mail depot saw the council pointed in the direction of outsourced company G4S for urgent mass testing – but the firm was unavailable for four days. 

While its government contract meant it could only test during the daytime, despite the depot having a large quota of night workers.

Manchester town hall was forced to take up the issue with the Department of Health and Social Care – which is leading the switchover – to allow for more flexibility in the contractor’s working arrangement, reports the Manchester Evening News.

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In Oldham, meanwhile, residents were told by the council a mobile testing unit would be available on Tuesday – but it never turned up and the local authority was not even made aware by the government which provider to expect.

Another contractor was then arranged for Saturday before a last minute change to Friday and still turned up over two hours late, meaning those who had booked morning appointments missed out.

The borough has one of the highest infection rates in the country and is desperate for targeted testing in at risk communities.

Recent minutes from the Greater Manchester emergency Covid response committee refer to “some concerns regarding the consistency of support going forward” prior to the switchover.

Army-led testing had been particularly efficient with 700,000 people tested via 218 units since the start of the pandemic.

After being made aware of six cases on August 2 at the Royal Mail – which employs 900 people across the region – the town hall identified a further six cases using its own staff.

But requested urgent mass mobile testing of all staff meaning G4S was brought on board – and after some wrangling, its contract was allowed to be more flexible and testing continued until midnight on Friday.

Most of the workforce has now been tested but it remains unclear what proportion of people were found to have the virus.

In Oldham, the council had requested a mobile unit be set up in Shaw and was told by the government that one would be there last Tuesday.

It wasn’t clear which firm would be providing the unit, but nothing showed up.

As a result, the town hall asked for additional days – and were told by the government that a unit would arrive on Saturday.

The council then found out on Friday morning that a unit would actually be appearing that day.

While people who had booked tests there from 10.30am and already left in frustration when it turned up at 1pm. It returned on Saturday.

The MEN reports it has been told of at least two cases in which mobile drive-thru units were requested but walk-through units turned up – and vice versa.

It is understood local authorities in the area wants the ability to deploy testing units itself, with contractors working from a long list making flexibility an issue.

“The big issue is the DHSC don’t want to manage their own contract or get into sorting out the operational mess, but it’s their contract, and G4S won’t take instructions from anyone else,” one official told the newspaper.

“The frustrating thing is if they had given us the resources to invest in local swabbing and the local labs and left it to us to organise it with the military, it would have been fine.”

Another described it as a “nightmare”.

Martin Hall, Business Director, G4S Facilities Management, said: “We are extremely proud of our thousands of dedicated team members at regional, local and mobile testing sites across the country who jumped at the opportunity to be part of the national response to the pandemic.”

The Department of Health and Social Care has been approached for comment.