Redditch family's trip to Covid test centre turned into 'nightmare'

The Williams family, from Greenlands, initially booked a test at a centre in Droitwich on Monday morning (January 25).

However, they ended up travelling to a number of centres across Worcestershire and beyond before getting their tests – a journey which took more than four hours.

Hannah, aged 27, Anthony, aged 32, and their four-year-old daughter Phoebe Williams, started showing symptoms of coronavirus over the weekend.

When they were almost at the nearby test centre in Droitwich for their 9am appointment, they received a text to cancel the appointment and to continue to a site in Worcester between 8am and 3pm.

Being out on the road already they continued to Worcester and reached the site at 9.10am to then be told the site will not open until 11am.

As the family were feeling ill, Hannah says they couldn’t do anything to pass the time, like going for a walk.

Hannah, Phoebe and Anthony Williams

She then phoned the Covid line who rebooked an appointment for them in Longbridge for 10.30am.

Wanting to get home to rest, they took the appointment and then drove to Longbridge from Worcester in the poor weather conditions.

They arrived at Longbridge for 10.25am but found that this site was also closed.

They then called the Covid line and say they were told the Solihull drive-in test centre was open. They drove to the site and after waiting 20 minutes in queue for the site they were then told this appointment was also cancelled and the site is closed.

Hannah said they then took the decision to return to the Worcester site as they knew this was open.

After waiting 45 minutes in a stand still traffic jam on the M5, they made it to Worcester to have their tests. The family all tested negative for Covid-19.

Hannah and Anthony both work in the transport industry and needed to get tested to ensure they could continue to work.

Hannah told the Advertiser: “It was extremely frustrating and distressing for my daughter.

“Every time we got to a site it would be closed. We did everything by the book.

“The thing that worries me is that we had to persist to get that test on the day. We wanted to be back at work.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Due to adverse weather conditions a number of testing sites had to temporarily close and efforts were made to inform anyone with a booking that operating hours were impacted.

“Since coronavirus testing began, over 62 million tests have been processed in the UK – more than any other comparable European country – with the vast majority of people reporting no issues with the process.

“NHS Test and Trace now has more than 800 test sites in operation, and the average distance travelled for a test is now just 2.2 miles.”