The COVID-19 testing centre based at the Technique Stadium, which had previously seen many people unable to book a test, is now “back on track” says Chesterfield MP, Toby Perkins.

Toby’s office had been inundated with complaints a few weeks ago from concerned constituents who had been unable to book a test or were having to wait long periods for their test results. Toby had raised his concerns in Parliament and with local health bosses, with a lack of laboratory capacity being blamed for the delays and difficulties.

Toby said, “I met with a senior officer from the Derby & Derbyshire Clinical Commissioning Group again today and was pleased to hear that, following pressure on the Government from myself and other Labour MPs, additional testing laboratories were procured and the Chesterfield testing site is now back on track and able to provide tests to everyone who requires one. I have had no complaints from constituents for over ten days now and I am optimistic that these problems are resolved, at least for the time being.

As rates of the virus are on the rise across the country, an effective testing system is vital in controlling the spread of COVID and hopefully avoiding a further lockdown, which would do further damage to pubs, shops and other businesses that are already struggling.

I will continue to keep a close watch on the testing capacity in Chesterfield, but it is vital that the Government’s testing and tracing system is working correctly. The shambles we have seen with data being lost due to the Government storing the information on Excel, cannot be repeated. The people of Chesterfield have done everything asked of them, the local health services are doing all they can, and we cannot allow Government incompetence to damage all that good work and sacrifice.”