Andrew RT Davies MS – the Welsh Conservative Shadow Health Minister – has backed calls from a nursing union for an investigation into slow turnaround times for Covid-19 testing, calling the current regime an “abject failure”.
According to a news report today (July 23), more than two-thirds of test results from community testing units (CTUs) last week took longer than 24 hours to be returned.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said the data suggests CTUs – mostly used by health care staff – produce results slower than those from hospitals or regional testing centres.
Mr Davies said:
“The Welsh Labour-led Government has said it is ‘.. working to improve turnaround times’, but this just isn’t good enough. In fact, the Covid-19 testing regime in Wales has been an abject failure.
"This virus moves so fast that in 24 hours one person could have met many people. This is potentially a problem regardless of who you are, but if you’re a nurse or healthcare worker, then you could be meeting an awful lot of people who are ill or otherwise vulnerable.”
“The whole testing system in Wales is a mess. The First Minister and the Health Minister – who by rights should be called the Minister for Excuses – don’t seem to be talking with each other, let alone have a plan.
"What really concerns me is that that he doesn’t have a good enough grasp of this now when we're actually well over the curve of Covid-19, so how will he and his Labour-Party colleagues get it right when we're up against it in the depths of winter?
“So I am backing the RCN and calling for this to be investigated now and improved now so that Wales can be better prepared for later.”
