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Barcode glitch prompts new testing system chaos as thousands refused entry

Robert Mendick
·4-min read
An employee of the NHS Test and Trace programme talks to a man who arrived with an appointment to get a test at a Covid-19 testing site after they had closed down the site for the day in Catford, southeast London, on September 17, 2020. - People who arrived at the testing site in Catford in southeast London who had appointments for a Covid-19 test were turned away because they were not in possession of a QR Code with their appointment, they said. The testing site closed down their operation with members of the public still arriving by car and on foot with long tailbacks causing delays on the South Circular.  - DANIEL SORABJI/AFP/Getty
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Coronavirus Article Bar with counter

The Government's coronavirus testing system has been plunged into a new crisis after thousands of people were turned away from test centres because of a computer barcode glitch.

Confusion at a drive-through test centre caused "massive gridlock" across a part of south London on Friday afternoon after motorists without a QR code were turned away.

Members of the public reported the same problem at drive-through centres at Chester, in the North West, and at Solihull, in the Midlands.

The QR code is supposed to be sent automatically with any email confirming booking of a walk-in or drive-through test. Workers at Covid-19 test sites then scan the code to confirm the identity and address of the person who has booked in order to prevent anybody from cheating the system.

However, it now appears the system has been sending out confirmation emails without the QR code, prompting test centre staff to turn away people with valid bookings.

Tom Copley, the deputy mayor for London, said he was aware of huge problems at a site in Catford, south-east London (see video below), and called the situation a "shambles".

He posted on Twitter: "Massive gridlock in Catford. Turns out a drive-through Covid testing centre has been opened here. All roads, including south circular, totally gridlocked. And after all that, nobody is getting tested because none of them have received a QR code. Shambles doesn't even begin to describe it."

Solihull Council said in a statement that a mobile testing unit in a car park had ground to a halt on Friday after 400 people were turned away without the QR code.

"The unit is open for tests today, but ONLY for those with a valid QR code confirmation," said the council. "We understand it was really difficult yesterday – 400 people arrived without a completed booking. Not their fault, it was due to a glitch in the govt booking system."

In Deeside industrial estate, just outside Chester, traffic jams built up, with people stuck at the gates of the test site unable to get in because a QR code had not arrived with the booking confirmation.

One IT expert said he believed the testing website, created by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) contained "basic coding errors" which could have caused the system to send out bookings without the QR code.

Craig Mason, 34, from Plymouth, created  his own "bot" that repeatedly searched for testing availability after spending more than five days refreshing the testing website "at least 200 to 300 times" in a search of a test for him and his family.

"The problems with the testing site are due to basic coding errors," he said. "My work has shut down, my daughter is off school, and it's taken over a week to figure out if we actually have it (the graph below shows coronavirus symptoms compared to other common conditions).

"It would take whoever is building this issue half an hour to fix it, it really would, and the problems would go away."

A DHSC spokesman declined to explain why booking confirmations were being sent out without the QR codes, but said that, in any case, testing centres, run by private companies should not have been automatically sending away people without the codes.

"People who have booked a valid appointment at a testing site will receive a test – sites can use other key information to confirm an appointment if a QR code cannot be provided," said the spokesman, adding that "you don’t really need the QR code".

"If you have a valid booking, site officials can use ... vehicle registration or your date of birth to verify the appointment," he said. "So if someone has lost one [QR code] or can't present it but has made a booking, the site can still verify it."