Problems with Covid-19 testing website resulted in Uffington man missing holiday flight
A 78-year-old man seeking a coronavirus test covered 400 miles and visited three testing centres before being given the ‘all clear’ - yet a technical glitch meant he was still prevented from taking a flight to Cyprus.
Barrie Church went onto the Government’s Covid-19 website on Wednesday last week (September 9) to book a test, which was needed to confirm he didn’t have coronavirus before embarking on a week’s holiday.
But after putting in his details, including his home address in Uffington, instead of suggesting Peterborough, the website gave him the option to visit the test centre in Inverness - a round trip of 800 miles - or check back later.
After several more attempts, which put forward centres in Bolton and Stockport, the website suggested Norwich. Barrie booked the time slot it gave for the following morning.
“As I arrived in Norwich on Thursday there must have been a thousand cars going into the test centre,” said Barrie.
“When I showed the officials the booking form I had printed, I was told it wasn’t valid and that there were hundreds of other people like me who couldn’t have a test because the computer went ‘doolally’ and sent everyone to Norwich.”
Barrie was told by an official to instead drive to Milton in Cambridgeshire for a test, but when he got there he was not able to proceed because his number plate wasn’t recognised - despite the test centre being empty.
“In the end I found a private company in London, took the train there and was tested on Friday,” Barrie said.
The test result - which was negative - arrived at 10.15am on Sunday, a short time before Barrie’s flight, but because they were sent to his landline rather than a mobile phone, he was unable to board the plane.
“I’m still healthy, still here and it’s only money that I’ve lost, but I do think the people who run the test booking system should be disgusted with themselves,”said Barrie, who hopes to go to Cyprus on a future date.