As Portsmouth City Council announce their plans to distribute 30,000 free Covid-19 tests for their residents when the government scheme ends on Thursday, News OnTheWight spoke to the Isle of Wight’s council’s (IWC) Cabinet member for Public Health.
The Portsmouth scheme is believed to be the first of its kind in the country, and will cost the City Council between £316,000 and £365,000, as each household eligible will receive five lateral flow tests a month until the end of June.
Love: No current plans to extend the scheme
News OnTheWight asked Cllr Karl Love, the Cabinet member for Public Health on the Island, whether the IWC had similar plans. He replied,
“We currently don’t have any local plans to extend the scheme beyond 1st April. It is a very fair question for you to ask and I thank you for this.
“I am in close contact with our Public Health Director and we do have local outbreak strategies.”
He added,
“We are taking an approach to support vulnerable people inline with national approach on our Island, but we are still waiting the specific national testing guidance.
“Government seem to make statements without quantifying what precisely they mean sometimes!”
Government ministers have stated that “individuals who are most at risk from the virus” will be able to access free symptomatic testing from 1st April, but have yet to expand on those details.
Called for deferral
Calling on support from the Isle of Wight MP and Government, Cllr Love told News OnTheWight,
“I have written asking our Conservative MP, Bob Seely, to request a government deferral of the implementation of the new scheme at this time due to rising Covid infections.
“My partner is currently ill with Covid and the only reason we know it to be Covid, is because we have a few test kits left over.”
Love: Selective testing confusing for residents
The councillor for East Cowes said he felt it better to continue with mass testing, “instead of confusing the population with selective group priority testing”.
“My feeling is that by introducing charging for LFK kits the number of people testing will fall rapidly and this will skew the data result, reducing the accuracy of data and affecting our responsiveness.
“Obtaining lateral flow kits is already becoming more difficult.”
The Isle of Wight Council will be handing out free Lateral Flow Tests on Thursday (31st March) at Westridge Centre, Ryde (behind the Tesco Extra.
Love: Many will not be able to access private tests
Cllr Love went on the explain his thinking about free testing,
“There are a whole host of reasons why we should continue, but also to help our NHS colleagues, unpaid carers who support their families and friends and these who are vulnerable in our community. The government is creating confusion by removing free universal symptomatic and asymptomatic testing the general public in England.
“Our government intends that the private market will take over this function there will be many people, set against a background of rising costs and fuel poverty, who will not be able to access testing kits.”
Government decisions unfair to those on low incomes
Cllr Love finished by saying,
“I’ve already having to make difficult decisions about how to spend their limited funds.
“By removing this free testing service our government creates additional inequalities in health access. Yet again our government introduces a system which is unfair to those on low incomes.”
