Covid testing clinics across South East Queensland overwhelmed

Mass chaos has unfolded at Covid testing clinics across South East Queensland, with seven-hour wait times and some clinics closed despite Queensland Health advising they are open, forcing police to step in to handle the growing crowds.

Chaos has struck South East Queensland’s Covid testing facilities with wait times blowing out to seven hours, roads blocked and hundreds turned away due to sudden closures.

Meanwhile, supermarkets have been swarmed by long queues of people after word travelled they had stocks of hard-to-get rapid antigen tests.

Hundreds of people have been turned away after waiting hours at a number of QML testing facilities following Queensland Health posting the wrong opening hours.

QML Pathology’s website said that clinics including Indooroopilly, Boondall, Ashgrove, and Robina, were closed on Tuesday morning, however Queensland Health reported that they were open.

Police arrived to assist with congestion at Murrarie just three hours after it opened, as both Lytton Rd and Metroplex Ave became completely blocked by cars.

The site has now been capped, with traffic controllers turning away any cars that arrive from 10am onwards.

On both QML and Queensland Health’s website, it says the facility is open from 7am to 6pm.

Cars queuing on the road for Covid tests at Murrarie. Picture: Supplied

People online have been expressed their frustration saying they’ve wasted hours in line only to be told the facility was shut.

“Why can’t they send someone out to let us know or post it somewhere??! What an absolute cluster f#$k!!?!!,” Scully Williams posted on Facebook regarding the Murrarie clinic’s closure.

The closures have caused wait times to blow out at other facilities across Brisbane.

An hour before opening, there were reports of seven-hour wait times at Prince Charles Hospital.

Huge testing queues outside Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital on Tuesday morning. Picture: Supplied

Those in line have said the queue had only budged 50m in an hour and a half after 9am.

At QML Murarrie, the queue was already snaking hundreds of metres down the road when gates opened at 7am.

By 9am, wait times had blown out to an estimated five hours with cars blocking lanes in every direction heading into the facility including Junction Rd in Morningside, Creek Rd and Lytton Rd heading west.

The “crazy” queue at the Herston Covid testing clinic on Tuesday morning. Picture: Supplied

The facility is being opened and reopened periodically throughout the day to avoid congestion meaning some cars are being turned away despite the facility planning to reopen later.

At 6am, QML Ashgrove had cars lining up all the way down Waterworks Rd, which stopped general traffic from using the left hand turning lane at a number of busy intersections in the area.

People are waiting up to seven hours for a Covid test at clinics across South East Queensland. Picture: Zak Simmonds

However, QML later shut the facility with some people online reporting a two and a half-hour wait before being told to leave.

Half of the Gold Coast’s 18 fever clinics are closed today due to staff becoming sick or isolating.

They include the busy Currumbin Waters 4Cyte Pathology clinic on the southern Gold Coast.

Large queues have formed at some of the closed clinics with many people caught unaware.

Only two drive-through clinics are operating on the Gold Coast.

It’s understood the clinics have had to close due to staff shortages.

Many Gold Coasters have taken to social media to vent their frustrations.

Mass testing lines on Newmarket Road. Photo: Supplied

Walk-in facilities were no less packed with people waiting in line at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital stretching the length of the hospital on Bowen Bridge Rd.

The lines for rapid antigen tests were also lengthy as people waited outside supermarkets and pharmacies before they opened the doors to get their hands on the fresh stash.

Big queues and traffic jams have formed at a small suburban shopping centre on the Gold Coast after the local IGA supermarket announced on Facebook it had stocks of hard-to-get rapid antigen test kits.

Dozens of people rushed the IGA at Currumbin Fair on the southern Glitter Strip as word got out that it had the kits and advised what time they were being delivered.

The panic buying saw queues of people snaking through the normally quiet shopping centre, and traffic jams around it.

People queue outside Currumbin Fair IGA for rapid antigen tests. Photo: Greg Stolz

“Avoid Currumbin Fair I just drove past hundreds of people lined up I’ve never seen so many people at Currumbin Fair,” one local posted to a community Facebook page.

Others posted of their frustration at missing out, with the supermarket selling out of two deliveries of the test kits within hours.

During a fiery Covid press conference, chief health officer Dr John Gerrard and Health Minister Yvette D’Ath faced a barrage of questioning about the wait time blow outs.

Dr Gerrard apologised to those people trying to be tested who couldn’t get one.

“My heart goes out” to those left languishing in long lines at testing clinics, the top doctor said.

But he said Queenslanders should only be getting a PCR test if they’ve been notified as a close contact or have returned a positive rapid test.

He said if people were sick and were not easily able to get tested, they should assume they had Covid and stay at home.

A Covid testing line in Stanley Street, Brisbane. Picture: John Gass

If people were breathless, had chest pain, fainted or had severe light-headedness, they should call an ambulance.

If people’s symptoms did not improve after the third day, they should also seek medical attention.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath recognised the “very long lines” across the state for people waiting for Covid tests with some private clinics still waiting to reopen for testing after the holiday period, which had compounded the screening capacity across the state with long lines and extended delays for results.

Ms D’Ath said she had been told some private clinics had advised they would not reopen for days and Queensland Health was seeking clarity.

“We know this is putting a strain across the whole testing system and we do ask for people’s patience,” she said.

Ms D’Ath said authorities were in constant contact with private clinics, but had assumed many would reopen today.

She said she was aware some hadn’t opened today because they didn’t have enough staff, including because they were in quarantine.

“This is happening across the country,” she said.

“We are as prepared as we can be.

“Have a look at what is happening around the world.

“This is not unique to Australia.

“My understanding is that we reached out to all the private pathologists to talk about them opening up after the Christmas break,” she said.

“... We can’t direct a private pathologist to open, we can’t force their staff to go to work if they’re positive.”