Manchester Airport’s new drive-through coronavirus testing centre is not enough on its own, local leaders have warned - but they say government is stopping them from opening more.
The region’s council chiefs want to see more centres opened in various other boroughs so that NHS and social care staff are easily able to access them.
But Andy Burnham said despite there being available capacity in a number of hospitals, the area does not have the power to open them without national sign-off.
He also said an offer he made to the government last week - to use Greater Manchester’s expertise and facilities as part of the national testing effort - has not yet received a response.
Mr Burnham said that with an antibody test not currently available, it was ‘hard to see’ how ministers would hit their target of a 100,000 tests by the end of the month.
The mayor was speaking almost a week after a new drive-through centre for NHS workers opened at a car park near Manchester Airport.
Mr Burnham said that had been opened ‘without a great deal of consultation’ with local leaders, although he understood ‘the need for speed'.
But he said others were needed and existing chances to open them had been overlooked, with organisations here not allowed to open facilities without national approval.
“I don’t think we did feel particularly consulted on the airport facility,” he said.
“The problem with that is that it misses some of the opportunities that might be there around Greater Manchester.
“There are resources in Greater Manchester that could be unlocked if we had more local ability to shape the way the programme is working.”
Leaders wanted to see 'more localised testing facilities using some of the facilities within our hospitals', he said, adding that they fear frontline staff in many parts of the conurbation may struggle to get to the airport site.
“Of course from Rochdale or Wigan or elsewhere it’s quite hard to access the airport testing facility,” he said, adding that the concern came up at the weekly Greater Manchester coronavirus emergency committee.
“It was particularly an issue raised by the leader of Tameside council around the cost of care staff or others accessing that facility and then getting back.
“So while we are encouraged by the progress, we would say to the govt there is a need for more local testing sites so that staff from the NHS or social care can more easily access those sites.”
Last week the mayor told government Greater Manchester ‘stands ready’ to help with the testing effort, including expertise within its higher education sector, scientists and lab capacity.
Asked whether that had been taken up, he said: “Well the offer still stands - and not as yet, although I was encouraged to hear the health secretary after the briefing we had given saying that he wanted to work more with university and industrial partners.”
However he said that without antibody tests, which are currently being explored by government, the health secretary could struggle to hit his latest testing target.
“It’s hard to see now from where we are today how we get to 100,000 tests by the end of the month,” he said.
“But I would repeat the offer that we stand ready to help in any way that we can.”
