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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.

  • Rom says:

    I have just returned from Dubai 14/12. I had booked and paid for a PCR test at a London clinic, within a few hours a friend of mine called and told me not to waste my money. The NHS PCR test is available to those if asked to get a test and this can be used on arrival as I and many others had. I printed out the appointment email and the results email, presented them with the entry documents supplied on the flight and was allowed through. The quickest entry into Dubai I have had over 8 trips.

    Are we abusing the NHS PCR testing is another debate. They have a lot of drive thru sites with lots of empty slots. Regular testing should be the norm for now until we have something concrete in the way of a therapeutic/vaccine.

    I enjoyed myself within the rules and came back to another negative result.

    • Anna says:

      I think that if you’re in an area where there is mass testing and you’re being actively encouraged to be tested, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with using the test result for other purposes.

    • Darren says:

      Did you present this at check in or on arrival?

    • Gavin says:

      Are people being asked to take NHS PCR tests without symptoms in some areas? Some parts of Wandsworth are being asked to take lateral flow tests without symptoms this weekend, but not PCR tests.

    • Max says:

      What about if the NHS test results don’t come through within the required 72 hours?

      • Rom says:

        Then you present yourself at Dubai immigration at take the free test on arrival (for UK & German Citizens). They ask you to wait in your hotel till you get your result. A client of mine from Asia took his test but was out in meetings as he explained that ‘no one is checking’ so he carried on as normal!

        • Rom says:

          You can also pay for a fast track test. Your choice, but NHS is pretty speedy from my experience.

    • Lumma says:

      The NHS test booking site now specifically says that you’re not to book one if you’re planning on leaving the country. They’re also not quiet any more, although it’s not like back in September when you couldn’t book one

    • Cat says:

      Save your money at the expense of the NHS?
      Wow.
      There are lots of empty slots as they’re released at short notice, so that symptomatic people can book a test shortly after becoming symptomatic, to maximise the chances of getting an accurate result.
      People should absolutely not do this.

  • MKB says:

    We are currently enjoying a very pleasant week abroad having provided negative PCR tests. I won’t name the company in the UK we used, but I was very concerned that there was no identity check. I could have sent anyone of similar age/gender to take the test on my behalf.

    • Tracey says:

      Same with all the self administered and then posted tests. Whose to know if a parent gave two samples rather than force their kid to gag?

  • Paul says:

    £600 for family to be tested is a luxury many cannot afford. If that is the price of travel, particularly with absolutely no guarantee that you don’t pick up the virus on your way out of the clinic; then I for one wont be going anywhere that requires such a test anytime soon. Its a waste of money and provides no reassurance beyond knowing you don’t have the virus at the time of the test,.

    • mutley says:

      Paul I Fully agree. £600 it shows you are free of symptoms for that moment in time. I wasn’t feeling well at the weekend, so called up the NHS on Monday at 15.00, got a drive through test at my local hospital administered by a nurse in full PPE, on Tuesday at 11.00 and got email confirmation I was negative on Wednesday 10.00 in the morning. I am extremely impressed and grateful for the NHS, and it cost me nothing, though I intend to donate £50 to the hospital charity. Though as my cousin who is a doctor said; there’s nothing to say I could have picked up infection since then though. Exorbitant private testing costs for the rich that lulls them into a false sense of security does make me laugh. The complacency of some beggars belief.

      • Anna says:

        I don’t think many people will be doing it for any kind of sense of security, they’re doing it so they can go on holiday!

        • old bob says:

          It’s about individual choice, Would you pay £150 for a test, that may be worthless after leaving the clinic, then sit in an enclosed space for 6 hours with 300+ strangers just to go on holiday, when there is a viable vaccine 3 months away? Personally, as an over 50 I would rather wait out the 3 months.

  • Alex says:

    I flew first class with emirates from manc on the 1st December. Not once at any stage was I asked about my test results. Crazy.

  • James says:

    I had one for free in Westminster yesterday run by the NHS. You do not have to have symptoms to attend. It took 10 minutes and the results were sent in 30 mins. There is no better option even if you paid a lot of money.

  • Sharon S says:

    What is needed though is testing on return after sitting on a plane with a few hundred other people.
    I’m sure i caught it last March on a return flight sat next to a long haul pilot who was flying regular flights to China.

  • K says:

    I had ours at Medicare Francais in Earls Court. Very professional, swab done by a doctor. Appointment was on time. Tests back the next day. They use the Regenerative Clinic for processing tests.

    • Lady London says:

      cost ?

    • Rob says:

      But why not cut out the middle man? If the swab isn’t usable you have a better chance of getting a new test in time if you were contracted directly with the lab.

  • Mark says:

    All slots are gone. No times available anymore on regenerative website

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

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