SIR: You mention in last week’s Chronicle that a search for the nearest test to Upper Brook Street returned an athletics park in London 91 miles away. This prompted me to search on Saturday September 12, at 9.30am I was offered either one in Portsmouth 19 miles away or one in Salisbury 21 miles away.

This is strange because there is a test centre in Winchester at Intech less than a mile from my home, I know it has plenty of capacity as I visited it at 10.30am and witnessed the empty bays and testing staff eager for work. Could I have a test? Sadly not, the idle staff would have gladly tested me if only I had a QR code, which is generated by the centralised booking system. I couldn’t book an appointment as the test centre was not featured on the booking app - a classic example of ‘Computer says No’.

Based on this limited survey, the problem with testing appears to be data management not kit availability or laboratory time. Deloitte and Serco have been paid a lot of money to operate a system that cannot satisfactorily match centre capacity to local demand. Perhaps our local MP could use his influence to find out why the system is not fit for purpose?

Garry Honey,

Northbrook Avenue,

Winchester