Sheffield City Council are the latest authority to deliver asymptomatic test booking using Stopford’s specialised solution for COVID-19.
Having gone live earlier this month, the authority joins a growing number of councils working with Stopford to assist in their lateral flow testing programmes (see our news posts on working with York and several London Boroughs at the bottom of the page).
How will booking benefit testing in Sheffield?
The introduction of the new booking system will aim to help the city council meet their various testing objectives and achieve their wider pandemic goals.
For one, booking will enable the council to take greater control over the allocation of rapid tests. The supply of testing timeslots can all be flexibly expanded or contracted in real-time based on the needs of the public and the resources available to the authority.
The requirement to book will also limit the number of potential visitors at any one time. This hopes to prevent council staff or essential workers creating queues and increasing the risk of transmission by all arriving at one time, which has the knock on effect of creating testing bottlenecks at specific times for staff.
Finally, by incorporating a system where details are submitted by the user prior to arriving at the testing centre, administration tasks on arrival can be drastically reduced and the input of details manually for reporting purposes can be avoided due to in-system automation.
More details can be found on the benefits of making booking part of your testing strategy in our post here.
How will the system work?
As part of Sheffield’s programme, the solution will facilitate the booking of asymptomatic tests at {location} and {location} testing centres, with council staff and later essential workers, being the first to be eligible to book based on their frequent contact with others.
Users will book online via the link provided, entering some basic details before selecting a testing location, date and timeslot. Upon completion, confirmations will be sent out by the system to provide a summary of the booking and provide additional instructions prior to arrival.
Alongside the tailored customer front-end for booking, Sheffield’s testing team will also have access to a highly functional admin suite based off of Stopford’s agenda generic appointment system.
Bookings submitted through the online form or via telephone will have their details inputted into a comprehensive diary system, allowing staff to oversee bookings as they happen, while also enabling cancellations and visitor follow up for Track and Trace.
If you would like to know more about Stopford’s asymptomatic test booking solution, please get in touch via our contact form below.