Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 9
9
We found that NHST&T was still struggling to consistently match supply and demand for its...
Conclusion
We found that NHST&T was still struggling to consistently match supply and demand for its test and trace services. In September 2020, NHST&T significantly underestimated the increase in demand for testing, when schools and universities returned.26 Laboratories processing community swab tests were unable to keep up with demand, leading to large backlogs, limits on the number of tests available, longer turnaround times and some people having to travel hundreds of miles to get a test.27 At other times, the issue has been the large amounts of reported capacity, both for testing and tracing, not being used.28