Nearly 3,000 North West health and care workers took part in a UK-wide survey which saw more than 22,000 responses. It ran over the same weekend as the Government’s announcement of testing expansion. At that time, 76% of all respondents said they had not been offered a test and, of those, 44% said that they did not know how to access testing.
The RCN also found that more than four in five temporary staff had not been offered COVID-19 testing, compared to three quarters of permanent staff.[1]
The survey also found that:
• 79% of those working outside of the NHS had not been offered a test, compared with 75% in the NHS.
• In care homes and prisons, around 50% didn’t know how to access tests, and with temporary staff, this figure was 60%.
• Of the staff who were offered testing, 90% were able to access it.
Dame Donna Kinnair, Chief Executive and General Secretary of the RCN, said:
“It is concerning to see that some nursing staff, particularly those outside the NHS, are still having issues accessing COVID-19 testing. We know that additional measures have been recently put in place to improve access to testing and will monitoring the situation closely.
“All health and care staff must be able to access testing so they can work safely and without worry. This is essential given existing workforce shortages across all health and care settings.”
Across all settings in the North West, nearly 75% said they had not been offered a test with just under 50 per cent of still uncertain of how they could get tested.
[1] This equates to – 86% and 75% respectively
NOTES
Methodology: The UK-wide survey was open from 6pm on Friday 24 April and closed at 12pm on Tuesday 28 April. It was sent to members by email and publicised on social media and shared with member networks.
Respondents were asked for their experience of access to COVID-19 testing, including:
• whether they had been offered a test
• reasons given for why testing wasn’t offered
• whether they were able to access testing provision and any barriers they had encountered
• how testing was carried out and how long test results took to come back.
