Covid-19: Testing in Wales has been ‘failure exacerbated by inefficiency’

Welsh Conservative Shadow Health Minister, Angela Burns AM, is calling for a change in how the testing system in Wales is managed in a bid to end the delay and deliver results after “… failure has been exacerbated by inefficiency”. 

Testing for Covid-19 (Coronavirus) in Wales has been beset by delays with the current target of 5,000 tests per day being missed with between just 600 to 1,000 (13 to 20 percent) tests being carried out a day, despite 1,300 tests per day being possible. The target of 9,000 tests per day is due to be missed by the end of the month.

Commenting on the suggestion, Mrs Burns, said:

“Doing the same thing over and over again isn’t working for the Welsh Government. We need change and we need it now.

“I’m not calling for the Health Minister to resign, but it needs to be one person’s job to sort out the bottleneck in testing. 

“That means one individual who is able to go through the whole testing regime from start to finish and immediately resolve the blockage, whether that be bashing some metaphorical heads together, redeploying staff, or redirecting resources. 

“That person needs to be able to ensure the drive-through test centres are finally up and running, or to see if tests can be completed faster in Manchester or Liverpool rather than driving tests down from North Wales to Cardiff. They also need to make sure that the people who can have a test, know it, and know how to access it. 

“Wales’ Coronavirus testing has been a failure that has been exacerbated by inefficiency. I’m sorry to say that this job is just too big for the Health Minister to do by himself, despite having the resources of the Welsh Government behind him.”