Patients will be asked to call NHS 111 to BOOK an appointment at hospital A&E departments to stop health service becoming overwhelmed this winter NHS 111 will become the ‘front door’ to A&E to stop the NHS being overwhelmed Patients will be asked to call and book unless it is a life or death emergency … Read more
Dido Harding walks to 10 Downing Street, September 16 As the testing fiasco threatens to shut down hundreds of schools, it’s the deafening question: what is the test-and-trace tsar Baroness Harding doing about the crisis? There has been barely a trace of her. The former businesswoman, who was appointed in a blaze of publicity in … Read more
Giving evidence to the Liaison Committee, Boris Johnson bluntly acknowledged that there is ‘not enough’ capacity for screening Boris Johnson today failed to rule out a second national lockdown as he admitted the government’s coronavirus testing system cannot cope. The PM insisted he was doing ‘everything in my power’ to avoid plunging the country back … Read more
An NHS hospital in Bolton has begged patients not to come to its ‘very busy’ A&E department for a coronavirus test after more than 100 people turned up amid England’s mounting testing fiasco that has seen people unable to get swabs across the country. Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, said in a … Read more
England’s testing fiasco first emerged three weeks ago when the government ran out of swabs after teachers and children returned to school, universities re-opened and parents dashed back to offices, a top expert has claimed as the crisis continues to unfold. Dr Duncan Robertson, a policy analyst at Loughborough University, spotted that on-line booking was … Read more
The testing fiasco is on the brink of dooming the country to a de facto lockdown with keeping schools open ‘unsustainable’, ministers were warned today. Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock are facing fury after the system descended into a shambles, with millions of people struggling to get checked. The Health Secretary was humiliatingly forced to … Read more
Britons seeking a coronavirus swab in Twickenham have been told to pretend they’re from Aberdeen in order to jump the queue – amid growing anger over the Government’s testing ‘shambles’. Health Secretary Matt Hancock has urged the public to not ‘game the system’ by changing their postcodes when requesting a test. But a glitch, revealed … Read more
Springy Matt Hancock clicked his brogues… but Mr Speaker simply squinted: HENRY DEEDES watches the Health Secretary feeling the heat in Parliament By Henry Deedes for the Daily Mail Published: 22:28 BST, 15 September 2020 | Updated: 01:47 BST, 16 September 2020 Whenever Matt Hancock now comes to the chamber, there is a contest among … Read more
Covid tests will have to be rationed, Matt Hancock admitted yesterday. In a humiliating climbdown, he said a ‘priority list’ would ensure care homes, hospitals, schools and key staff had enough. In a torrid session in the Commons, the Health Secretary was also forced to admit the current critical shortages could drag on for weeks. … Read more
Britain’s coronavirus testing system has come under intense scrutiny in recent weeks amid reports that people are unable to get tested for the virus. Government officials including Health Secretary Matt Hancock and the testing boss at NHS Test & Trace have blamed ‘lab capacity’ for the shortcomings. Hospital staff now warn they are staying home … Read more