500 cars turned away from seven-hour COVID test waits at Maitland

Nick Ryder and his partner arrived at the Maitland Showground testing clinic at 7.10am, and were still two-to-three cars away from being tested at 2.30pm. "We've been here for seven hours," Mr Ryder said from the queue. "It's bloody woeful. We're still here, we haven't moved .. and there's not a toilet to be seen anywhere.

Mr Ryder said he didn't bring any food or water, thinking he'd be done in two to three hours, and someone else in the same queue had run out of petrol. "We weren't expecting to need provisions ... but we're stressing out a bit now."

He and his partner, a healthcare worker, needed a PCR test after attending a Christmas party on Saturday where someone later returned a positive Rapid Antigen Test, he said.

Denyse Potts also sat in the Maitland Showground queue for most of the day, along with her 12-year-old grandson who has Autism, because her granddaughter was diagnosed with COVID on Christmas Day. She arrived at 9am, and was still in the queue at 3.30pm. She's been told to expect to wait four days for a result, forcing her to cancel a hospital appointment on Thursday to have post-surgical stitches removed.

More than 500 cars were turned away after the gates closed at 12noon, security staff said. One man parked his car near the entry and walked home, planning to return at 2am to start queuing up again. In Newcastle, people were being turned away from the University test site from 7.45am.

There was a three-hour wait at Rathmines, and the queue at Belmont reportedly stretched for 5km, but queues were moving more quickly at Honeysuckle where people reported being processed in between 10 and 45 minutes. Some of the region's test clinics will close over the weekend, but some will remain open, including at the Newcastle Velodrome, Charlestown, Nelson Bay, and Wickham.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said on Wednesday the situation will improve. He was looking forward to formulating a national approach at a cabinet meeting on Thursday. He welcomed Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk's decision to allow interstate travellers to rely on a positive rapid antigen test result to cross the border as of January 1.

But, he said, it was also up to members of the community to take pressure off the system by staying away out of PCR test queues unless they had symptoms, or been asked to get one by NSW Health.

"There are many people, who are lining up in those queues, who do not need to be there," Mr Perrottet said.

"We are doing everything we can to increase capacity and put downward pressure on those queues, but if you are not sick, if you do not have any symptoms, you are not unwell, or have not been advised by NSW Health to receive a PCR test, you should not be lining up for one."

Health Minister Brad Hazzard supported his stance saying "the worried well'' should not be lining up for PCR tests.

Hunter Public Health physician David Durrheim said public laboratories were focusing on keeping the health service staffed and the private sector was scaling up as much as they could to meet demand.

"I think they may have been surprised at just how large the demand is," he said.

"Hopefully, with maybe a more focused approach on people who are clearly close contacts, and particularly those who are symptomatic, we can better channel the PCR tests, which are now becoming a very prized resource, and maybe use for lower-risk individuals more of the rapid antigen tests."

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