Ministers could ban companies which mislead customers by promising cheap Covid PCR tests, it was claimed today.
Holidaymakers buying travel tests from the cheapest firms on No10’s official website face paying up to five times the amount advertised. Research shows the real cost of single-test kits advertised for just £20 on the list can be as much as £99.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid has already asked financial watchdogs to investigate if travellers are being ripped off or misled.
Whitehall sources they expect health chiefs to begin ‘culling’ firms that quote ‘wildly different prices to the ones they are offering on the government website’.
A source told The Times: ‘The Competition and Markets Authority will be looking at that and that’s expected to be part of their findings and recommendations.’
The Government is facing increasing pressure to end the ‘Wild West’ of test costs for travellers.
MailOnline yesterday revealed the most expensive PCR test listed on the catalogue of approved providers costs £400. On average, British travellers have to fork out £92 per test.
But customers are paying far more than what is ‘fair’, according to Professor Stephen Bustin, a world-renowned expert on PCR tests at Anglia Ruskin University. He said a price in the region of £20 would be reasonable.
Most of the cut-price offers are either out of stock or only offered in actual centres — meaning many customers would have to travel hundreds of miles.
Tourists travelling to green list countries and fully vaccinated holidaymakers going to amber list destinations are required to book one PCR test in Britain for when they re-enter the country.
Non-vaccinated travellers need two after returning from amber list countries and red list destinations require two regardless of inoculation status.
Ministers insist travellers take PCR tests — which can take three days to give results — because they are more accurate than cheaper lateral flows, which offer answers in as little as 20 minutes.
Ministers could ban companies offering PCR tests for travel at five times their advertised price of £20. Pictured: Ed Cockroft receives a test in Cabot Circus car park, Bristol
Health Secretary Sajid Javid (left) has asked the Competition and Markets Authority to investigate whether travellers are being ripped off or misled. A price in the region of £20 would be reasonable for the swabs according to Professor Stephen Bustin (right), a world-renowned expert on PCR at Anglia Ruskin University
WHAT COMPANIES ARE ADVERTISING £20 TESTS?
Test For Now claims to offer a self-swab Covid test for £21 on the Government website but the cheapest available on its website is for travelers to take on their second day back in the UK and costs £89 for a self-swab version, while it costs £97 for the same test at its clinic.
Meanwhile, Everything Genetic’s £20 offer is only available to NHS staff, with others charged £60.
Pillhub-Feltham Pharmacy and 0-100 Travel 19’s £20 tests are currently sold-out and their other PCR tests cost £80.
ArrivingUK advertising ‘self swab at home’ day two kits for £20 on the Government portal.
But on the firm’s website this was only available to people who could collect them from Wembley in north London. The real cost was £89 plus £10 postage.
Abicare Health was listed at the same low price but its website says this is only available if you can travel to Manchester — and not until November. The real cost for a posted kit is £75.
Advertisement
Of the 12 cheapest firms listed yesterday which offered £20 single-test ‘self swab at home’ kits, none were willing to post them out at that price.
The research, by the Daily Mail, found testing firm ArrivingUK advertising ‘self swab at home’ day two kits for £20 on the Government portal.
But on the firm’s website this was only available to people who could collect them from Wembley in north London. The real cost was £89 plus £10 postage.
Abicare Health was listed at the same low price but its website says this is only available if you can travel to Manchester — and not until November. The real cost for a posted kit is £75.
Everything Genetic Ltd also offered single-test packages for £20 but its website says this price is only available for NHS workers. Otherwise it’s £60.
Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel, said: ‘The Government list is not really fit for purpose. Many of the cheapest advertised don’t exist or the advertised prices are impossible or unrealistic to obtain.
‘Many also fail to provide tests and results on time. It’s unacceptable and ridiculous.’
Avi Lasarow, boss of testing firm Project Screen by Prenetics, said a ‘small minority of rogue traders’ were bamboozling travellers. He added: ‘Ministers must really act to end this Wild West of prices.’
The £400 PCR test listed on the UK Government’s approved list of providers is offered by ROC Health Services, which is located just around the corner from London’s Harley Street.
But there are several factors that could be behind the sky-high price, including the fact it is based in central London.
The Department of Health also says the tests — which can be performed in a matter of minutes — are supervised by medical staff on site, meaning the firm may factor in some labour costs.
ROC Health Services uses Source BioScience’s laboratory to carry out the testing, suggesting the provider likely has to pay to get the samples analysed.
Labs use machines and array of chemicals to decipher whether a sample contains Covid.
Research by the Mail shows the real cost of single-test kits advertised for just £20 on the list can be as much as £99. Graphic shows: The step-by-step process of a PCR test
Research by airline consultancy Skytrax shows airport PCR tests were available for as little as $8 (£5.70) in Mumbai, India, in April. The cost in Britain was nearly £100
The average price among all the 425 Government-approved provider for a single swab is just over £90 — a cost which pricing many families out of going abroad this summer.
Virginia Messina, of the World Travel & Tourism Council, called on ministers to subsidise PCR tests if they keep insisting on them, or let travellers take cheaper rapid tests.
Everything Genetic agreed ‘many companies are manipulating their price’ but denied it was one of them, saying it had ‘provided quality services to the NHS, private sector and public for nearly five years now’.
A Government spokesman said: ‘The Health and Social Care Secretary has requested advice from the CMA to stamp out any exploitative behaviour.
‘We are also working with the travel industry and private testing providers to further reduce testing costs.’
Source link : https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9883111/Ministers-cull-Covid-test-providers-sell-20-swabs-FIVE-TIMES-listed-price.html
