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The Brabant GGDs do not agree with criticism that the handling of corona tests would be too slow. That’s what two administrators say on behalf of the three health services in our province. Deputy director Thérèse Claassen of GGD Hart voor Brabant asks for more understanding: “We have built up a test device of enormous size in a short time and are scaling up further. It takes a while before everything runs optimally. ”
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Joris van Duin
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The criticism focuses on GGDs, in which it often takes longer than the intended 24 hours before people can go for a corona test. There is also regularly more than 48 hours over before they hear the result. This while the GGDs called on people with complaints to have themselves tested last week, partly after the discovery of hot spots in West-Brabant.
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Since then, there has been a storm and waiting times have increased at test streets in cities such as Tilburg and Breda. Experts make themselves out there to care about. As long as there is no vaccine, rapid testing, isolation and detection play a crucial role in fighting the virus. Experts fear that people’s willingness to test suffers from longer waiting times.
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The GGDs in Brabant are therefore scaling up at an accelerated rate: since Monday, our province has six locations where 3000 tests can be taken daily. In the fall, there will be at least 5,300, spread over nine locations.
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“The aim is to test everyone within 24 hours and give the results within 48 hours.”
“The expansion is a gigantic operation,” says Deputy Director Claassen of GGD Hart for Brabant. “There is a lot involved, there are a lot of links in the test chain.”
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Director Ellis Jeurissen of GGD Brabant-Zuidoost supports her colleague. She says that enlargement was not realized overnight. “You need a location, trained personnel and an ICT system. The same applies to logistics and coordination with the laboratory and rapid communication about results. Moreover, if someone has actually been tested positive, there must be sufficient employees who carry out source and contact research. ”
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According to Jeurissen, high expectations have been raised by saying that anyone with complaints can get tested very quickly. “We are happy that more people are getting tested, but the boom in people has also taken us by surprise. Upscaling is custom work and always takes some time. The aim is to test everyone within 24 hours and to give the results within 48 hours. We are confident that we can achieve this structurally in the short term. ”
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Sometimes the GGD has to deal with a setback “For example, we found out yesterday that a bug in the ICT system had not yet called 70 people who did not have a corona. We solved that as soon as possible. This is also new for us and it is good when people realize that this is a huge job for the GGDs, especially here in Brabant, where we have been flames non-stop for six months now, “says Jeurissen.
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“We are working very hard to help everyone as quickly as possible.”
On the other hand, the board members also say that they understand that people become restless when the test result is delayed for more than 48 hours. Until then, the agreement is that someone will stay in home quarantine to avoid accidentally transmitting the virus. Claassen: “That is very annoying, but we are working very hard to help everyone as quickly as possible.”
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The Ministry of Health wants to eventually take 70,000 corona tests per day throughout the Netherlands.
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