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My experience of paying for a PCR covid test in London

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Over the last couple of months a lot of readers have asked us for recommendations for a paid PCR covid test.

We have been offered chunky sums of money to promote a couple of providers. After all, 250 couples sent along by HfP at £150 each is a £75,000 windfall for the clinic involved. None of the offers were both price competitive and had good user feedback, however, so we let them go.

Coronavirus

This week my family had to get a test as we are heading off to Dubai for Christmas. If you fly direct to Dubai you can get a test on arrival for free, but we were booked on SWISS via Zurich. In any event, I didn’t like the idea of failing a test on arrival and having 14 days of ‘hospitality’ at the hands of the Dubai authorities.

The Regenerative Clinic

A friend recommend The Regenerative Clinic to me – website here.

The key benefits seemed to be:

  • these are serious people, as you can tell from the services they offer and the private hospitals they partner with – this is not a start-up aiming to cash in on covid testing
  • they have huge numbers of slots available (you will find that whatever provider is recommended by your airline, or Boots, has no slots for weeks on end) because they process people exceptionally quickly (EDIT: following publication of this article, all pre-Christmas slots were taken)
  • they have their own in-house lab, which meant that I was as certain as I could be that they would meet their promised turnaround time
  • the pricing was competitive – you can have a same-day test result (very few providers can do same-day PCR tests) for £225 or a next-day result for £150
  • they are in Central London – Thayer Street in Marylebone

Booking

You can book online, and American Express is accepted.

The problem is that you need to make separate bookings for each person in your family group. This is not an issue in itself EXCEPT that the website has cache issues and has problems when you try to make bookings back to back.

My wife, who I booked second, got a payment receipt but no confirmation letter. When I called up there was no record of her booking although the clinic quickly slotted her in. If you are booking for 2+ people, use a different browser, or private browsing, for each person.

On the day

We were booked in for 12.30 on Monday. When we arrived there was a 5-6 person queue. We were a little early but we joined the queue anyway and it turned out that they are not totally strict about when you arrive.

(My guess is that this one clinic is doing close to £100,000-worth of tests per day at the moment. Nice work if you can get it especially as there is no VAT.)

The Thayer Street unit is in a row of shops which means that it is not set up like a surgery. You walk in the door and there is a reception desk in front of you. To the right, behind a privacy curtain, is where the swabs are taken. You are not taken to a separate room.

Be aware that the form you are asked to sign does not ask for your passport number. If your destination country requires your passport number to be on the certificate, you need to write it onto the form somewhere and hope it gets added.

The general view of the three of us was that the test was done more professionally than the one we had in Jersey in August, and was therefore less painful and invasive.

We were back on the street within 10 minutes of walking through the door.

The results

We paid for the £150 ‘next day’ test.

Our tests were at 12.30 on Monday. At 14.40 on Tuesday I received three emails, each containing a PDF test certificate showing that we were all negative. The passport numbers had been correctly added to each certificate.

Conclusion

The Regenerative Clinic did what it promised, delivering test results in an appropriate format within the time frame quoted.

Having their own on-site lab is clearly a key part of why this works.

Many other providers simply offer a money-back guarantee if your test result is not back in time or, even worse, the swab turns out to have been taken incorrectly and cannot be processed. This is obviously not acceptable if you need to travel.

(I get a feeling, although I don’t know this for certain, that if my swab had been faulty I could have dashed back over to Marylebone and they would have taken another for immediate same-day processing.)

The clinic website is here.

For absolute clarity, we paid the full price for our tests and we have no commercial relationship with the clinic. Caveat emptor etc.

Comments (141)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Dooly says:

    If you are flying on the same day as I am (starting in ZRH) I shall say a socially distanced hello! I normally wouldnt book the new flex award fares but as I have quite a few miles and more points, I saved 400chf on taxes by spending the extra 20,000 points per person for business class. Shame most of the good lounges are closed in Zürich! Have fun, Dooly

  • Tim says:

    I think the test is meant that be painful and invasive so they pick up the right cells.

    • ChrisC says:

      These tests can be uncomfortable yes but if the person doing them makes them painful then there is a problem with their technique.

      You can certainly collect a correct sample without it being painful

    • Doc says:

      It definitely is invasive and uncomfortable but not painful. If it is not invasive or uncomfortable, then the swab result is unlikely to be accurate representation of your COVID status. I know since I currently get swabbed every 2 weeks!!!!!

      • Andrew says:

        Likewise.

        Had my fifteenth swab yesterday. Eyewatering, uncomfortable, always anxious and convinced the medical student is going to trigger a gushing nose bleed or pull out a foot long snot string, but never painful.

        Tested 11:34
        Result 22:52 – Negative

    • nathan says:

      No it isn’t. Not in my personal experience anyway. The necessary ‘invasion’ i.e. simple insertion into nostril and mouth doesn’t need to be painful at all.
      (FWIW i’ve now had two dozen plus tests having been on a twice weekly schedule for work)
      Perspective is in short supply in recent times it seems. Compare and contrast Covid Test with Hep B or Yellow Fever jabs back when we could actually travel.

  • Adam says:

    I just finished the test and rest deal at the LHR T5 Sofitel, provided a saliva sample at 6.30 pm received the all clear result around 8.30am the following morning. 199 GBP including room and test for one adult seems decent value to me compared to other options out there. Reception printed off the test result enabling quick entry into Dubai.

    • Andy says:

      My friend did this last week. The cost was £240 for the room and if you book 2 guests you get 2 tests in that price.

  • Ready Togo says:

    Anyone know how airlines (or anyone!) is verifying that email test are authentic?
    Are they doing a percentage check back to the labs… I could see this being a potential bottleneck consideration longer term.

  • Ian M says:

    Bonkers how much money is being made by the companies manufacturing and carrying out tests.

    • Number9 says:

      The whole thing is bonkers.

      • Brian says:

        Especially when you consider that the original study in Eurosurveillance that put forward the idea of PCR tests for Covid contained errors, probably wasn’t peer-reviewed and was co-authored by members of the Eurosurveillance editorial board and by people linked to the company that first produced the PCR testing kits. It’s bonkers that these factors are ignored.

        • Ian M says:

          Don’t ask questions, to do so is endangering public health….

          • Number9 says:

            Yes you virus denier anti vaxxer. 🙄
            Fancy having the termirty to ask questions.
            I refused the vaccine for my Mum yesterday I’m nursing her at hone she’s “ end of life” horrible term,what’s the point of her having that. They are already stressing me out about funding her EOL care they can stuff their vaccine.

          • Brian says:

            What’s “asking questions” on a travel blog going to achieve?

          • Lady London says:

            I feel for you @Number9 and respect you for being firm and sticking with. In similar situation a few years back we found the hospice was absolutely brilliant at helping us steer clear of cr*p like that.

          • Number9 says:

            Don’t be obtuse Brain.
            LL … it’s like all things, some people are helpful and others are insensitive and shouldn’t be any where near any care profession.

  • Larry Collier says:

    We took the Dubai government required 96 hours before test in Warrington. The tests came back within the required time but were time stamped 0000 instead of 1200, meaning they were outside the 96 hours limit. I emailed to have them corrected but we had been in Dubai three days before this was done. Very lucky that the the mistake was not noticed on arrival.

    • Doc says:

      Larry, please could you tell me where you had your test done in Warrington please?

    • Voldemort says:

      I don’t think the immigration staff @ DXB give much of a crap to be honest, they certainly didn’t with mine!

  • Laura says:

    I was extremely lucky to get a Boots test booked in just a week before I needed it (test tomorrow, booked on Sunday) but that was only because a new store started doing it locally.

  • Andrew says:

    What a load of hassle just to go on holiday.

    • Number9 says:

      It’s a lot easier if you live in a big town or city to get these tests, but I’ve got no idea where I would have to go living in the countryside. I guess I would have to travel to Aylesbury or Milton Keynes. I’m not booked to go anywhere till end of June anyway so no doubt things will change, although I’m in no doubt these expensive tests will remain.

      • Lady London says:

        MK will have places, better shopping these days than the West End. For more boutiquey stuff and upper end London still amazing but mid-range MK has pretty much everything

    • Johnny Tabasco says:

      I know, it’s almost as if we were in the middle of pandemic that had closed off most of the world from each other.

      • Brian says:

        Might have misinterpreted but I think he might be saying that you’re better off holding off on holiday plans given how much of a faff it is and the risk of restrictions being applied at the last minute etc.

        It would be nice to go on holiday but none of the places I actually want to go to are restriction free so I’ll go when they are (I need to be at work a couple of times a week so can’t quarantine and I’m not stupid enough to risk my job by lying about dodging it)

        • Andrew says:

          Yes, that’s exactly what I meant Brian. Just seems a lot of hassle just to go and sit on a beach – my plan is to save my money, time and disappointment and wait it out.

    • Lumma says:

      Imagine going through all this to go to somewhere like Dubai too…

      • Brian says:

        Uh oh

        🤣

      • Anna says:

        Lol Lumma, anywhere with sunshine is going to be paradise after 18 continual months of northern English weather, whatever the Dubai snobs say … 🤣

        • Brian says:

          I don’t think having a different preference for holidays makes someone a snob….

          I’m not interested in skiing holidays either as I’m too lazy to learn, does that make me a snob too?

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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