Following the Ministry of Health's announcement about the launch of a new online platform to order rapid antigen tests (RATs), where to actually collect them has become a point of confusion for some.
The ministry announced the new service in a press release on Thursday, saying free RATs can now be ordered online to test Covid-19 household contacts or symptomatic people. The online platform had already been in use for critical workers.
The ministry said in the release that "there are now more than 500 access points for RATs nationwide, including participating pharmacies, GPs, testing centres, and collection sites".
“The ability to place an order online ensures that the process is smoother when people go to collect them,” said Jo Pugh, acting group manager of Covid-19 Testing and Supply.
“It also means that the whole whānau don’t need to queue up at the testing centre when one person in the household gets sick, because you’ll be able to collect RATs for everyone in your household.”
But that did not prove to be the case for everyone on Thursday.
Massive queues were reported at some collection sites following the announcement. An east Auckland man told 1News he spent three hours "moving around the city" looking for a RAT test for his son on Thursday.
“I went to two pharmacies and they advised that the MoH website was incorrect and I had to go to the Leonard Road collection centre in Mount Wellington - I drove past that but traffic was 100 cars deep - communication needs to be sorted,” he said.
He then travelled from Mount Wellington into Auckland's CBD and spent an hour lining up at the The Cloud collection centre in Quay Street.
Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield acknowledged queues were a problem.
“Yes I’m aware that there have been some delays in some places intermittently. I understand there’s quite a delay at the collection site in Christchurch today," Bloomfield said on Thursday.
"Our team is on the phone and working with the DHB there. You will see that everyday we’re opening up more and more of these collection points to help with this issue. We’re seeing some people are having to wait. It is intermittent and I think for most people they’re both able to order ahead now and pick up their tests quite smoothly.
“The only other advice I would give and it’s a request really – that people just be patient. I know there’s a number of staff working at these sites who’ve actually been subject to some quite unpleasant behaviour and of course it doesn’t want to make them turn up… I just encourage people, as they have through, please be patient, staff are doing their absolute best. There will be more sites opening up every day across the motu," Bloomfield said.
GP sector under pressure
Medical director of the College of GPs, Dr Bryan Betty says the topic of sourcing RATs has become confusing.
"GPs can't give RAT tests to patients to take away and we can only do supervised RAT tests at the clinic.
"Where they say [the Ministry of Health] 500 sites, that is slightly misleading because you can get a test at a GP if clinically indicated but they can't be given out," Betty told 1News.
"There is confusion over the ability to access RAT tests in general practice. They can only be supervised.
"I have had a lot of reports today that general practice have been getting excessive phone calls from people wanting RAT tests," Betty said.
"There has been problems and a degree of confusion on the roll out of RATs, I am hoping the ministry will be working quickly to rectify the issues that have arisen," he said.
An Auckland pharmacist 1News spoke to said he'd had "quite a few phone calls" from the public expecting to be able to collect RATs after ordering online.
"I emailed the Counties Manukau DHB and they said to redirect them to collection centres. Then later they sent an email saying there's been some mistake on the website where pharmacies have been wrongly attributed," the pharmacist said.
'TO ALL COUNTIES MANUKAU PHARMACIES', the email from Counties Manukau read.
"We have been notified by a number of health providers including GPs and pharmacy where patients are turning up to collect RATs ordered via the MoH website. Consumers following the link may have incorrectly identified your pharmacy as a collection site for free RATs. However, this is not correct and the permissions for pharmacy delivering supervised RATs has not changed.
"Pharmacies in Auckland are not acting as collection points.
"Work is being done to ensure the correct information is displayed in the best manner possible.
"This is a known issue that is currently being worked through at pace," the email from the DHB forwarded to 1News said.
In a statement to 1News, Pharmacy Guild of New Zealand Chief Executive Andrew Gaudin said:
"The Guild is currently in discussions with Ministry of Health officials on using pharmacies as collection points for rapid antigen tests (RATs). We welcome and support this initiative as this will provide convenient access to RATs for New Zealanders.
"While nothing has been agreed on yet, we are confident that community pharmacies could make this work effectively, provided a fair and reasonable service and funding model can be agreed."
A pharmacist told 1News pharmacists in a chat group have said they have been offered much less (0.50 cents) to be a collection site for RATs compared to the much higher ($45) paid to do supervised RAT test, but this is yet to be confirmed by the health ministry.
Director-General of Health responds
At the newly-brought back 1pm press conference, Dr Ashley Bloomfield attempted to bring some clarity to the RAT rollout confusion.
"There were discussions with pharmacies and again, not all pharmacies will be required to, so it's an opt-in if they do want to be a collection point for rapid antigen tests," Bloomfield said.
"General practice has found the same issue and whilst we've been at pains from the start to say general practices do not have rapid antigen tests to hand out, people are used to going to pharmacies and general practices for care and they have assumed they [RATs] are available.
"I think the point here is people who do need RATs should go to a community testing centre or to a collection centre having used the click and collect online RAT ordering process - is the way to go," Bloomfield said.
He also said the ministry has been "talking to pharmacy sector representatives but individual pharmacies may not have been aware or had the expectation they would be a rapid antigen distribution centre".
Bloomfield said pharmacies are "not obliged to provide rapid antigen tests".
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