Key workers angry over 'chaos' and four hour waits at testing centre based at Doncaster Sheffield Airport

Workers including care workers arrived at the site at Doncaster Sheffield Airport today expecting to be tested at the time they had been given as an appointment.

Instead, workers were told they would be waiting for as long as four hours in their cars in hot sun, with many having travelled long distances to get to the drive-through test centre.

One furious woman, who is a front line worker from a mental health background, asked not to be named.

She told how she arrived at her 2pm appointment at Finningley today, to find a tailback of cars which she estimated at over a mile in length.

She said: “We arrived and we were in a queue for about an hour in a car in baking sun. We weren’t going anywhere – it was absolute chaos.

“Then a lady came round wearing high vis. Cars were started to turn round, She was stopping at each car to say there there was going to be a three hour wait. We said we’d drive from Sheffield, but she said there was nothing she could do.

“Some opted to wait.

“It was like a motorway traffic jam.

She she was told she and her husband, also a key worker, could come back tomorrow with the QR code that they were given when they booked their appointment online on Friday.

“If the same happens again then, I’ll not come back,” she said.

Another key worker contacted us with the same complaint.

Tom Charles said: “I’ve just been to my Covid 19 test at Doncaster airport only to be turned away due to a five hour backlog. My test was pre-booked but this made no difference, they were turning away everyone, even a nurse who had driven 90 minutes to get there!

“It’s an absolute shambles, proper Dad’s Army stuff.”

The Department of Health and Social Care have been approached for comment.

Health secretary Matt Hancock said on Wednesday the Government was making it faster and simpler for any essential worker in England who needs a test to get a test.

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