Call for investigation into Covid-19 testing no-shows

The Irish Patients' Association (IPA) has called on the HSE to urgently investigate why so many people are not turning up for their Covid-19 tests.

It has been issued after it was revealed a quarter of appointments at some centres are being kept.

Stephen McMahon from the IPA says all the no-shows could add up to scores of missed cases.

"There's something wrong here that we are not connecting with these individuals to have their tests done.

"So it is the system's failure in that it can't connect with these people to get them back.

"But I think this is really a question for NPHET and the minister to come up with some solutions to ensure that we can get these no-shows to turn up.

"It is almost 100 people per week that will test positive because of the sheer size of the number of people that are not turning up."