A HEALTH board has apologised after an 85-year-old left waiting almost a week to find out if she has coronavirus was told there is 'no record' of her having had the test.
Helen McCluskey, who lives in a sheltered housing complex in Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, was visited by a nurse at her home last Tuesday after initially being told by a GP she would be required to attend a testing centre in Hamilton.
Her son, Dougie McCluskey, whose runs a dementia charity, said his mother was told to call NHS 111 after a few days to check if her results were available as she has no email address.
However, according to her son she was unable to get through despite waiting on the line for an hour. Mr McCluskey said his sister was "fobbed off" by a call operator and told that results can take five days.
READ MORE: Coronavirus: Vaccine rollout fears after 'lowest daily tally' yet
The 85-year-old has now been told by her GP practice that there is no record of her having the test and will have to wait for a repeat visit.
Mr McCluskey, who lives in the north of Glasgow and runs Battle Against Dementia, said his mother is also waiting to find out when she will receive the Covid vaccine and described her experience as "shocking".
Nicola Sturgeon has previously acknowledged that Scotland has been slower in inoculating the over-80s and said this because the bulk of the country’s vaccine supply had been directed towards care homes.
Mr McCluskey said: "My mother hadn't been keeping too great and has had a chest infection and she called her GP and they wanted to do a test. They initially wanted to send her to Hamilton.
"A nurse came out and she was very nice and she gave her anti-biotics and also did the test and said someone would be in touch.
"She doesn't have an email address so a couple of days went by and still nothing. She was told to ring a 111 number if there were any problems. She spent over an hour on the phone and couldn't get through.
READ MORE: Coronavirus Scotland: Nicola Sturgeon to set out 'other steps' and lockdown timescale
"Then she called the doctor and was fobbed off. By this time, my sister phoned on Friday to try to speak to someone and they said it can take five days.
"My sister said that we were very concerned and called the doctor who said it was nothing to do with them."
Mr McCluskey says his mother was then contacted and told that there was no record of her having had the test.
He said: "At the end of the day, we still don't know if she has the virus and we are having to stay away.
"Surely there should have been a follow-up call to her to say, we've lost the results. It felt as if it didn't matter. She's also had nothing through to let her know when she will get the vaccine. "
READ MORE: More than 840 people in Scotland test positive for coronavirus in past 24 hours
Donald Cameron, Scottish Conservative Shadow Health Secretary, said: "To leave this lady waiting for six days for a Covid test result is appalling in itself, and will have caused her an extraordinary amount of stress.
“She’s also a victim of the SNP’s sluggish vaccine rollout and it is simply unacceptable that she has not had her jab yet.
An NHS Lanarkshire spokesman said: “We would like to apologise for any anxiety caused and would ask Mrs McCluskey, or a family member, to contact us directly to allow us to look into the issues that have been raised."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here