North Thanet MP says ‘keep trying online’ as people struggle to get covid tests

North Thanet MP Sir Roger Gale

People are again struggling to get Lateral Flow Tests and staff at the Manston PCR test site are ‘working flat out.’

North Thanet MP Sir Roger Gale says he is trying to get help for constituents.

He said on social media: “Kent appears to be in Lateral Flow and PCR Test gridlock. Manston staff working flat out, no stocks in chemists and no East Kent delivery slots available.”

Earlier this month Kent County Councillor Barry Lewis, who sits on the authority’s public health committee, raised the acute supply issue for Lateral Flow Tests saying he feared health repercussions if people couldn’t test over the Christmas period.

Although the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has doubled delivery capacity people are still having difficulties getting the tests with many pharmacies running out of supplies.

UKHSA has worked with Royal Mail for a rapid expansion in delivery capacity to people’s homes and is also increasing test availability at pharmacies, PCR testing sites and local authorities. Pharmacies are now able to access 10.5 million lateral flow tests per week, an increase of 5.5 million tests per week.

UKHSA says it is working to secure hundreds of millions more LFD tests and an increase in PCR laboratory testing capacity of up to 150,000 tests per day.

Tailbacks were caused on Boxing Day as people queued to get PCR tests at the Manston site.

Sir Roger said: “I have spoken to Secretary of State, there is a world shortage of Lateral Flow and PCR test supplies, but we are buying all that’s available. Best advice to constituents- keep trying online, as stock are being released hourly.”

Find details for how to get tested here

Concerns raised over Lateral Flow Test supply issues in face of unprecedented demand

38 Comments

    • . . . and so many people without symptoms are obsessed with testing themselves every other day – ”just in case” – thus causing a shortage of tests for others with a more legitimate need for a test.

      Undoubtedly the obsessed self-testers are the same people who hoarded all the bog rolls and pasta . . .

      • The reality is many people have largely become hooked on fear & tests/needles-which are are their comfort blankets. The government have managed to grind people down to where they will now accept any edict without question, regardless of whether it is a law or even debated in parliament.

        They bang their pots & chants Save/Thank The NHS over & over-despite the fact the taxes they pay for the NHS now entitle you to virtually nothing-GP’s will only see you to stick a needle in your arm for extra money, the hospitals don’t want you there, they don’t want to perform your cancer or heart surgeries etc & see sticking needles in the arms of people who mostly don’t require them every 2-3 months as more important than stopping cancers becoming terminal, or even being diagnosed.

  1. This man and his corrupt government are causing untold misery & angst. I wonder if we’ll be expected to pay for the tests soon as the 2012 Act for NHS centralisation & privatisation goes up a gear. We’ve already lost the QEQM stroke unit. For all those who are unaware of what this H&SC Act was about, there are informative videos on You Tube. 1:The Great NHS Heist 2:Groundswell 3:The Dirty War on the NHS 4: Under The Knife 5:SICKOUK

  2. who woke old roger up – is there any money involved in it for him ?, as for the new jumper , is that to remind him where he works ? where i do believe he once had one of the worst attendance records.

    • So has the Winter Flu. The world death population from Covid is 0.07-0.27, the average age of death is over 83. Let us keep some perspective-most people who get it have cold/winter bug like symptoms, or don’t have any symptoms.

      • This comment should not be allowed, as it is a deliberate mis/disinformation related to covid19.

        Please, if you are not medically qualified then STFU.

        • Both facts actually-you may not like them & want to play the offended cancel culture routine, but they are reality.

          • Just because you say they are facts does not make them so, Steve. Just because some letters are posted on a blog does not make them medical facts. You know that, but you want to play the inhabitant of the imagined United States of Boris. OK boomer.

            Leave the medical discussions to the medical professionals, your opinion in that area is as valuable as Gale’s on mountain climbing.

    • Thank you Chris, this virus is lethal, and has killed over 500 people in Thanet alone! Who are these dumb deniers? I am like millions of others “clinically extremely vulnerable” who could be killed by some idiot who has not been vaccinated, Duurh!

      • Actually Dumpton-they are people who have died with Covid not necessarily because of it. Covid is just put down on the death certificate as standard if somebody has it. What we don’t have are the details of those who died-age, other health problems, obesity, how many went in with pneumonia from poorly heated houses due to fuel poverty. As we have now had confirmed a third of people went in with other problems that weren’t Covid & were only diagnosed with it in hospital.

        • Steve, do you really know how death certificates work? I thought so. We have all those details that you mention, and they are publicly available with daily/weekly updates. But not that you’d know where to look for or how to make sense of them.

          Of course people have died with COVID but not necessarily because of it, dont you think we have not taken that into account when we report on the likelihood of death following infection? That does not make the infection any less important for patients, and the health service.

          Please, this problem is too important to leave it to armchair doctors and virologists, stay out of it if you dont know what you are talking about! What are you going to do next, offer advice on how to repair our Trident submarines? 🤦🏻‍♂️

  3. So the government is determined (for ideological reasons) to keep the country open, and it’s people spending.
    But, obviously, if people are seriously ill or worse with covid, they won’t be able to spend.
    So: Get everyone to take a LFT before they set foot out of the door.
    So we’ve gone from a situation where a few ten thousand are regularly testing, to millions testing.
    Problem: there aren’t enough test kits!
    Bonkers, or what.

    • No, what is bonkers is what Scotland, N.Ireland & Wales have done. The evidence is clear-this strain causes 70% less hospitalisations than Delta, far less deaths, the effects are very mild.

      If they had any brains/weren’t in thrall to the drug companies they would let this thing spread among everybody other than the vulnerable & build up natural resistance as recommended by the experts in South Africa.

      This thing is here to stay like the common cold, we have to learn to live with it. Closing down the NHS to keep sticking needles in arms every 2-3 months when a new strains emerges/the boosters lose effectiveness & every shop is only going to cost businesses & lives. It is time to stop living in fear of something so puny.

      • But it’s not “so puny” for the people who succumb. And the problem is that Omicron is very, very infectious.
        A small % of not many is not many; but a small % of millions is a huge number.
        It’s simply not true to say that CV/Omicron is like the common cold. It still makes people very ill. It still kills people.

        • In far less numbers & 70% less hospital admissions. Sadly, at no point in history can you protect the entire population from viruses. You should protect the most vulnerable as best you can, not inject fit & healthy people-diverting resources away from people who have life or death health issues such as cancers & keep cancelling their surgeries. For most it is a cold/winter bug. The average death age is around the average life expectancy age.

  4. Maybe New Years Eve you can all take a break from negativity. Have a day off, chill, and enjoy life. Treat yourselves from day off from bad comments.

  5. I chilled out on Christmas Day and went to a pub. Today I was pinged by the NHS app to say that I’d been in close contact with someone on the 25th.
    So I think I’ll stay at home with a bottle of beer on the 31st.

  6. If I went to the GP (well back in the day when you still could) and said – Doctor I’m feeling well, can you test me – I’d be shown the door. Only thing highly inaccurate moronic variant testing is good for is for fear-inducing newspaper headlines at the behest of their masters. Meanwhile, many small businesses will shut for good and children’s education will continue to be trashed if you let that happen. It will be very interesting this year when more information comes to light. Many politicians of all colours will be on the wrong side of history.

    • The difference is that right now your doctor (ie the medical profession) is asking you to take a rest, rather than the other way round.
      The reason being that, unlike diabetes, for example, contracting covid and spreading it has consequences for others, possibly death.
      Those of us who are responsible members of our communities have regard for others as well as ourselves.
      We avoid crowded indoor spaces, or wear face coverings if we can’t; we take regular LFTs to see if we are infected (and thus infectious – we can spread the disease even though we’re not displaying symptoms); we self-isolate if necessary to protect our friends, family and the wider community.

      I cannot begin to imagine what drives the phobias affecting the likes of Steve and Democrat. Were what they espouse to be true, it would imply that world governments of every shade and hue were in collusion, from democracies and republics to dictatorships; from far right wing fascist states through liberal nations to the communist countries.
      Pakistan in bed with India; the USA with China; the UK with France. And all these politicians would have to be colluding with almost all the scientists (there are always mavericks) in every University in every country on earth. And all the press, from state broadcasters in Russia to the free press in Europe, would have to be on board with this massive deceit.

      On the other hand, perhaps there really is a world wide pandemic of a lethal virus.

      I know what I think.

    • The big problem with testing-aside from the inaccurate results either way is as we have heard a third of those went into hospital with other health problems & were then diagnosed with Covid, NHS staff being tested & taken out of the game despite being asymptomatic.

      Now we have a strain that is phenomenally mild, deaths are falling week on week, this strain cuts people in hospital by 70% etc-there is no excuse for this crazy mass testing for something that gives most no symptoms.

      • “Inaccurate results”? What are you talking about? Do you actually know how the different tests work? Where are you getting your biomedical knowledge from, Rees-Mogg’s Treaty on Physiology?

        Do you understand the difference between “not infected”, “infected and asymptomatic”, and “infected and symptomatic”?

        If you were posting this tripe on social media your messages would be flagged as misinformation. You have no clue, and what is worst, you have no idea of how wrong you are…

        The only problem we have is foggies with too much time in their hands imagining conspiracy theories to kill time whilst they wait for Coronation Street to start.

  7. Just get a grip, Democrat. Your choice of emotive language comes across as ridiculous. “Fear-inducing headlines”- if they really were, there’d be far fewer people doing foolish things which cause Covid to spread. “The behest of their masters”- this is the 21st century, we are not forelock-tugging peasants any more.

    • Like the recent 6,000 deaths per day from Omicron headlines you mean? Something way milder than Delta,which at it’s peak in January never made it to 1,900 deaths per day-despite the same/worse forecasts being made by the same people then. We were supposed to believe something milder with less deaths could cause over three times as many deaths? Yet you claim these ludicrous headlines aren’t fear inducing?

      Thankfully more are waking up to this nonsense. Deaths are going down, we now have a strain that has 70% less people in hospital kicking Delta into history, incredibly mild symptoms for nearly all who get it.

      Isn’t it funny that something positive isn’t getting even a fraction of the media attention or response it should-certainly nowhere near the bad news headlines & comments from the government, Whitty, NHS etc. They should be hanging from the chandeliers singing at this, but of course good news doesn’t sell & the control & fear doesn’t work with positive news, cannot justify the mass jab insanity with it either.

      • I haven’t seen the headline which says that there have been 6000 deaths from Omicron in a day. Which newspaper was it in? I think that “fear” is not what many people feel when they read the papers , but it’s natural to feel anxiety, under the circumstances.

  8. What is an anagram of ‘Delta’ and ‘Omicron’ = ‘Media Control’. Are these Covid variant names trying to tell us something?

    • Kent Resident- no they’re not. The names of the variants are the letters of the Greek alphabet, in the correct order.

      • It’s been planned since the invention of the Greek alphabet. It a deep deep conspiracy by foreigners!

        You know who loves Greece and has spent time there during pandemic the PM dad! It’s all making sense….

        Tory backers and the rich elite MPs wanted to lose millions whilst covid has spread…. Yeah…. And the rich media owners… yeah… all to control the little man…. Yeah…

        We’ve cracked it. Case closed.

        Lord these people and their theories!!!

  9. It’s all a vast conspiracy, I tell you! They’re all involved!!
    The capitalists, the communists, the Free masons!
    Only I have found them out.
    I have a degree from Facebook University with a PHD from Twitter College. It’s all revealed in the blog called “Jesus sent Trump to save us” written by a devout clergyman from the “Donald Trump Church of Christ the Climate denier” based in Dumville, Oklahoma.
    It’s all there!

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