KEY coronavirus emergency workers in Inverclyde are being forced to travel miles outwith the district to be tested for COVID-19 — despite the existence of a facility in Port Glasgow.

People such as police officers, supermarket staff, postal workers and bus drivers have been told they must go to a centre at Glasgow Airport to be tested for the deadly disease.

The decision by Inverclyde Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) has been blasted as 'outrageous and unacceptable' by council SNP group leader Chris McEleny.

Councillor McEleny has also demanded that a coronavirus assessment centre at Greenock Health Centre be upgraded to a fully operational testing facility.

He told the Telegraph: "We are already aware that health and social care staff have expressed concerns about their access to testing and I have serious concerns about the uptake of testing that requires a commute to Glasgow Airport."

The UK Government has already declared that testing is being rolled out in the community for essential workers.

But Mr McEleny said: "This is neither commonly known or is indeed the reality of the situation."

Inverclyde's HSCP corporate director, Louise Long, confirmed in official correspondence to Cllr McEleny that the testing site for local key workers who don't work in health and social care is Glasgow Airport.

But if there is insufficient capacity there, workers could be directed to another centre up to 90 miles away.

In her communication with Mr McEleny, Ms Long wrote: "Access is via the employer or the employee can self-refer on the government website and will be directed to a test site within a 90-mile radius."

The HSCP says the testing facility at Port Glasgow Health Centre is exclusively for the use of health and social care staff, or their family members, who are showing coronavirus-like symptoms.

The Tele reported last week on concerns that the drive-through facility is being underused.

Greenock Health Centre's assessment unit is for individuals referred through NHS 24 who are showing symptoms or whose condition is worsening — with no testing available to them.

Cllr McEleny said: "Our essential workers, which include firefighters and council staff as well, are already putting themselves at increased risk every single day.

"Making them travel to Glasgow Airport for a COVID-19 test is outrageous and unacceptable — they deserve better.

"I believe that Greenock Health Centre should now be utilised as a community testing hub for essential workers who are not part of health and social care.

"It has already geared itself up to deal with patients with symptoms of coronavirus, so it would be a much better approach to offer testing there to people in Inverclyde."

Cllr McEleny added: "This would make them more likely to take up the test, would reduce the strain on the delivery of essential services, and it would reduce the risk to people being forced to travel to and from Glasgow Airport to a drive-through service which assumes that everyone needing a test has access to a car."