TENS of thousands of coronavirus tests are not being used as people don’t turn up – with just days to go to reach the 100,000 a day target.
Shocking stats have revealed that up to staggering 16,000 tests are still going unused every day, the latest figures show.
There was the space for 38,000 swabs a day at the end of last week but only 36,000 on Sunday, a worrying drop.
And just 21,600 tests were carried out in total up to 9am on Sunday.
MPs lashed ministers for the Covid testing shambles and warned the UK looks set to miss its key target of 100,000 tests in just ten days’ time.
Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “Testing and contact tracing is a vital tool in our response to this virus.
“Ministers have promised us 100,000 tests a day by the end of the month and it’s crucial they now outline a national testing strategy.”
medics say they are having to travel hours to get to a drive-thru testing facility, and are turned away if they don’t have an appointment.
Last night Downing Street suggested bus drivers could be among the next in line for testing.
It said that it wanted “much broader groups of key workers” to be eligible for checks.
Last week police, fire and prison staff were told they could sign up and get tested.
Workers in care homes are also getting signed up too.
Of the fall in Covid testing capacity, the PM’s spokesman said: “There has been a small dip while commercial partners make adjustments to their processes.
“The demand from the NHS was not as expected, which is why we’re rolling out eligibility criteria for others now. Where we have the capacity we want to use it.
“We do think we’re on course to meet the target of 100,000 tests.
“It’s for the NHS to refer people to go for testing.”
Professor Martin Marshall, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said: “It is essential that GPs, and all other health and social care professionals, who are working on the frontline have access to testing.”
He added: “We have welcomed the Government’s pledge of more testing in recent weeks, including in care homes, but we need to see testing increased in the wider community.
“We understand increasing testing at such pace to reach 100,000 a day by the end of the month will be an incredible logistical challenge, but it will be necessary in helping us to come out of this crisis.”
Meanwhile Government insiders and some members of the Cabinet started turning on Health Secretary Matt Hancock, as the target looked less and less likely to be readed.
One scathing minister told HOAR last week: “Hancock isn’t going to meet his target – we need Hancock to stop gambling with his pledges.”
Wales yesterday announced it was abandoning its own daily target of 5,000 tests a day of key workers as it couldn’t meet it.
An insider close to Downing Street told the Daily Telegraph that the Health Secretary’s target was “arbitary”.
They said: “The problem is with this arbitrary target. There is a faint irrationality behind it, just because there was a clamour for mass testing.
“Hancock’s 100,000 target was a response to a criticism in the media and he decided to crank out tests regardless.
“He’s not had a good crisis. The Prime Minister will say he has confidence in him but it doesn’t feel like that.
But an ally of Mr Hancock said: “Anyone who thinks Matt just walked into a No10 press conference and came out with his own figure doesn’t have a clue how Government works.
“It was a Government target, arrived at by looking at what capacity there was in the NHS and the private sector and then setting an ambitious goal. The aim at the time was to get key workers who were self-isolating back to work if they did not have the virus.”
A No10 spokesman said: “We agreed the figure before it was announced and it remains a Government target.”
