Care home staff are having to wait up to six days for the results of “critically important” weekly covid tests due to processing delays.

One care home group manager said the waits, thought to be caused by a surge in parents getting their children tested after the return to school, were rendering the system “somewhat null and void”.

The Scottish government says overall capacity will be increased in the “coming weeks”.

Speaking yesterday, Nicola Sturgeon said the number of children going for testing had increased eight times over since the middle of July. Last week alone just under 17,500 under-18s were tested, she said, though just 0.3% tested positive.

The First Minister said the last few days had been the first time that the processing capacity in laboratories had come under pressure.

Over the last week NHS boards have issued pleas for people only to come forward for testing if they are displaying virus symptoms, or if they have been asked to get a test by public health teams.

Derek Barron, Director of Care at Erskine, which runs four care homes for veterans and their families, said the problem had got “noticeably” worse since the schools went back and previous 30-hour responses are now taking up to five or six days.

Meanwhile, Alyson Vale, the business and operations manager for Abbotsford care, a family-run care home group with 12 homes across Fife, claimed: “Recently the delays in the results have been rendering the system somewhat null and void.”

“It’s been a demanding situation in terms of the time it takes care home staff to deliver these tests, provide the admin for the tests and do all that’s required, but we were keen to ensure that we were doing what we could to ensure our staff are protected.

“We are testing all of our care home staff on each week, that’s testing both the day and night shift of each team, so testing usually happens over two days.

“The systems in total were working fine, until recently where we found ourselves waiting up to six days for the results to come back.”

Scottish Care said the testing system was of “critical importance” and that pressure was only going to increase as winter approaches.

The body, which represents most care homes for older people in Scotland, is raising concerns with the Scottish government.

Chief executive Dr Donald Macaskill stated: “The difficulties experienced in parts of Scotland this week shows to anyone who might have doubted it that we are still in the midst of the Covid19 pandemic and that the care sector is still facing immense pressures.

“I am pleased that we now have systems in place which enable us once we have identified local challenges to raise these as urgently and directly as possible and to sort the problems out quickly.”

A Scottish government spokesperson said: “Scotland’s dedicated care home workers are on the frontline of our national pandemic response and their work is hugely valued. It is crucial that they are able to access testing with results provided in a timely manner.

“We are aware of a significant increase in demand for testing this week and are implementing contingency plans to increase capacity.

“The [UK] Department of Health & Social Care are working to increase overall capacity which is anticipated to happen in the next couple of weeks and we will continue to work with NHS Boards and DHSC to seek prompt resolution to issues as they arise.”

Supporters – If you can help support our reporting for Scotland's health and social care community, please head to our donations page.

Bulletin – Sign up for all the latest news and events.