MCD Medical is ready to compensate for the damages caused to people who unsuccessfully reported testing for coronavirus in Goes last week. There is no test site at the address mentioned on Joachimikade. All victims, estimated to number around 300, will receive a €25 gift card. Anyone who has incurred a lot of costs for this damage can also be compensated.
“There’s been a huge error here,” says Thijs van Zanten of MCD Medical. The company has more than a hundred test sites across the Netherlands and has asked a “subcontractor” to arrange another 27 new sites. “We personally visited 26 of these. But the address is in Goes; well, we’ve forgotten about that,” van Zanten says.
Although there was no test site in the title, it was mentioned on the government site testvoorjereis.nl. On this site you can make an appointment for a PCR or antigen test. The result was that from Wednesday, the first people came to stand in front of a closed door in Goes.
Detour with the caravan
A number of victims have moved to another MCD site, such as in Vlissingen. But an unknown number did not have the time or the possibilities for that. According to Van Zanten, there will be people who have missed or postponed their vacation trip. “There are also people who incurred extra costs because they were on their way to France with their convoy and made a special detour to take a test in Joyce,” he says.
MCD is sending all victims of the ghost testing site an email today about how to get compensation. “We’ll reimburse you for all the costs,” says Van Zanten. It is believed that the company has sufficient financial scope. “Just in perspective: We do 20,000 to 30,000 tests a day. So that shouldn’t be a problem.”
The tenant let her down
The company also informed the Ministry in its capacity as the customer and financier of the tests. Van Zanten: “The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports was contacted because we had a clear agreement on the provision of services. We reported what had gone wrong.”
In any case, the blame does not seem to lie with the owner of the relevant building in Joachimikade. He told Omroep Zeeland that someone called Omroep Zeeland two months ago to rent a place. When the contract was to be signed, the potential tenant failed.
