Coronavirus drive-through testing in place at Newmarket Hospital

A drive-through testing facility for coronavirus has been set up at Newmarket Hospital.

The hospital, on Exning Road, is one of just three set up in Suffolk and Essex in response to an NHS demand that health services in every part of the country provide home and community testing.

To have a test at the new drive-through, patients must be referred by the telephone service NHS 111. Once a referral is in place, the patient will be asked to attend an appointment in their car.

At the testing facility, community nurses will be on hand to take sample swabs from the patient’s nose and mouth.

These will be tested and assessed within 72 hours and during that time the patients should self-isolate in case the result is positive.

An NHS England spokesman emphasised that the new facilities were not ‘drop-in’ centres and only patients whose symptoms met the nationally agreed criteria for a suspected case would be asked to attend for testing.

The first case of coronavirus in Suffolk was confirmed by Public Health England on Tuesday.