Brewers Hill, Dunstable - COVID-19 testing centre
New COVID-19 testing centre at Brewers Hill, Dunstable
As part of the Government’s UK-wide drive to increase COVID-19 testing, a new test centre will be set up on Brewers Hill Road. This will improve the availability of testing in the local area and the wider community too.
The testing centre will be located on the area that used to an overflow car park for Watling House and Creasey Park football club, but we have made arrangement for the football club to use the council’s small car park next to the fire station.
The new centre will be a walk-through test centre and it will be open 8am-8pm, 7 days a week.
This will allow people without access to cars to book appointments, and to improve accessibility to testing in the heart of communities who need it most.
Work will start on preparing the site on Wednesday, 13 January 2021 with a view to opening the site the following week.
Testing will be available only for those with coronavirus symptoms – a high temperature, a new, continuous cough, or a loss or change to sense of smell or taste.
The site will operate on an appointment-only basis and tests at this centre can be booked on the NHS website or by calling 119. Appointments will be made available each day.
This video explains visiting a walk-through test centre
The site will have standard operating procedures which have been signed off by Public Health England to ensure that procedures have health and safety at the forefront.
Anyone attending an appointment at a walk-through testing site will be provided with guidance on getting to and from the test site safely.
As well as security on site 24/7, there will be a number of measures in place, including:
Social distancing measures
Those being tested will be required to follow public health measures, including social distancing, not travelling by taxi or public transport, practising good personal hygiene and wearing a face covering throughout (including travelling to and from the testing centre). After booking their tests, test subjects receive the full address and directions to their local testing site.
Personal Protective Equipment on site
Staff who are required to interact with test subjects wear PPE. The on-site operational staff do not wear PPE as this is not required. These staff do not come into direct contact with any test subjects.
Cleaning regime
There is a strict cleaning regime for the whole site which means that facilities are cleaned multiple times a day to ensure very high standards of hygiene. Waste is removed on a regular basis.
Designated areas
The testing areas are segregated from all other areas. All efforts have been made to reduce the disturbances to local communities and only operational staff will be in the designated area of the testing site.