"I'm a Devon covid tester"

What it's like to work at an Exeter centre

An army veteran has explained what it is like working at a Covid-19 testing centre in Devon. Steve Todd, 64, who served with the Devon and Dorset regiment, responded to a call from the regimental association to help.

Mr Todd, a care home manager in Torquay, assisted in the setting up the Plymouth test centre in early April and now works evening and weekend shifts at the facility in the Honiton Road park-and-ride at Sowton in Exeter.

He praised the mix of services veterans, people on furlough and those who have lost their jobs, who make up the team working alongside staff from Boots at the centre. Mr Todd said they were all fully trained and kitted out with personal protective equipment to make the process as efficient as possible and safe for staff and visitors.

He is the manager the Vanehill Care Home in Torquay, but as it has so far remained free from covid-19 he was given permission by his employer Notaro Homes to join the test centre team. He said the workers at the site were paid £10 an hour and carried out a series of tasks at the site, from guiding cars into bays, explaining the process with phone calls and handing out test kits through a passenger window. 

People can carry out the nose and throat swabs themselves, or be helped by the staff from Boots who are on duty there. Mr Todd said the team were all given training on hand-washing and social distancing, and provided with personal protective equipment to keep them and the visitors safe, as all cars had to be treated as potentially carrying the virus. He said the staff changed their PPE after each contact.

He said one of the important roles was to provide reassurance to people seeking a test, and help them through what could be an unpleasant experience to get a swab sample from the throat and nose. He said some people were confused when they arrived and could become distressed.

He said: “You get a better understanding of covid-19, you get a realistic view when you see people in cars who don’t look well, and you have to reassure people who don’t look well. They can get distressed. If it comes back positive, you have to self-isolate, and your family as well. Taking the test is a brave decision.”

Mr Todd said he felt the testing teams were “silent key workers”, carrying out an important job as part of the coronavirus response. He said: “It is well run, it is safe. It is safer than being in a supermarket. They are unsung heroes up there. All those guys are doing something that not many people would volunteer to do.

“You are assisting somebody getting through a very significant time in their lives. That’s why it is important that the testing station runs that through as efficiently as possible.”

He said tests samples were sent off overnight and the results were coming back in 24 to 48 hours. Staff were tested so they could understand the experience, and his own came back negative.  Up to 800 tests a day were carried out at the peak of activity, but that has now fallen to around 200. He says people come from all over the region to the site in Exeter run by services contractor Serco.

Mr Todd, who lives in Torquay, joined the Devon and Dorset Regiment aged 15 and served around the world. He left in 1985 and joined the care home in 1990 after a spell with the ambulance service.