A DRIVE-THROUGH mobile coronavirus testing centre was opened at The Woodlarks Centre last weekend as part of the government’s drive to increase testing for thousands of care workers, including those showing no symptoms.

The one-day facility was set up in the Woodlarks staff car park in Lodge Hill Road on Sunday, May 3 – and not only were Woodlarks’ staff and residents tested, but care homes across Farnham were also able to register for a test online.

The mobile unit, manned by an army unit from the Scots Guards based in Aldershot, opened at 9am and welcomed a steady flow of people wanting to be tested throughout the day.

It came about after Woodlarks Centre general manager Lynda Pattie requested that the residents at the care home should also have a coronavirus test, following the Government announcement that tests would be carried out for care staff.

Together with the North West Surrey NHS Clinical Commissioning Group, Lynda was able to organise a mobile Unit to be located at The Woodlarks Centre for Sunday, May 3.

She then spent most of Saturday into the evening telephoning the care homes in and around Farnham, including the Phylis Tuckwell Hospice, to advise that the facility would be available for staff testing, and assisting them in registering for a test.

The Gov.Uk website site for registration to test at The Woodlarks Centre went live at 6pm on Saturday evening.

On Sunday morning, Lynda emailed the care homes wishing to participate to check they had been able to register.

Manager at Waverley Grange, Carol Coulson, emailed: “The site was down first thing this morning but is and up and running again now.”

The site had been busy throughout the evening and morning with people registering.

On Sunday morning, at 9am the army unit arrived and were able to set up in the staff car park and a drive through testing service was launched. They had a steady flow of people wanting to be tested.

Lynda said “All our residents and staff were tested and there was a steady flow of visitors to the unit throughout the day so whilst it was a busy day I believe it was a great success.”

A new coronavirus testing centre has also opened in Guildford this week as part of plans to ramp up community testing across Surrey.

Until recently, key workers wishing to be tested for Covid-19 have had to make long journeys to testing centres in Chessington, Gatwick and Twickenham.

That is rapidly changing, however, with army-run mobile testing drive-throughs popping up locally – such as at The Woodlarks Centre.

And, as of last week, a new appointment-only testing site has gone live at the Onslow park-and-ride facility in Guildford.

People in Surrey who are eligible for a coronavirus test can find answers to their essential questions by going online at www.surreycc.gov.uk/coronavirustesting

Under new guidance, in addition to key workers, testing is now available to anyone over the age of 65 with symptoms, anyone with symptoms who cannot work from home, and care-home staff and residents.

Surrey’s community testing capacity, co-ordinated by the Surrey Local Resilience Forum, is being built up and over the next week this will ramp up to include testing of all care-home residents and staff, regardless of whether or not they have symptoms.