Government unwilling to tell Oldham MP how many Covid-19 tests have gone missing

Oldham West and Royton MP Jim McMahon

Jim McMahon has revealed that not for the first time during the pandemic, the Government have been unwilling to answer a question put to it by the Oldham MP, this time on the number of Covid-19 tests that have gone missing.

After hearing concerning stories from constituents and local councillors about people having Covid test, never getting the results and then being told that it’s likely that the test has gone missing, Mr McMahon was eager to find out how common a problem this was nationally and whether Oldham was disproportionately impacted.

So the Oldham West and Royton MP decided to ask the Government, ‘How many completed Covid-19 tests have gone missing (a) nationally and (b) by local authority?’

A Health Minister responded to the Written Parliamentary Question last week by saying: “We do not publish data in the format requested.”

Mr McMahon said: “I was really concerned when I heard multiple stories of people being told the reason they hadn’t got their results back yet was because it was probably lost.

“People having to take multiple tests because the first one goes missing is not an efficient system at all, it creates delays and increases the demand on the testing service needlessly.

"Given the billions that the government has spent on the test and trace system I think the public have a right to know the scale of any issues it’s having.

“And ‘not publishing’ the data is not the same as not holding it, time and again the government have ducked and dodged being transparent.

"It really does make you wonder what has the government got to hide about missing Covid-19 tests.

“We know that Oldham has been hit hard by the pandemic.

"We’ve had some of the highest infection rates in the country at some point and you begin to wonder how much better our town could have fared if we had a working test and trace system.”

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