Doctors are urging people to stop turning up at a hospital’s emergency department to get a coronavirus test.

The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital said it was seeing an increasing number of people arriving at A&E asking for a test, as problems with the system continue.

It reminded anyone with symptoms to stay at home and book a test online instead.“You will not be tested if you turn up at the emergency department and your actions risk spreading the virus,” a spokesman added.

People have been struggling to book tests all month, despite testing centres being empty, because of a lack of lab capacity.

The desperation to get a test has also seen people trying to game the system by putting in postcodes in Scotland and Wales to generate a QR code, which they then use at a test centre near them.

In Bolton, where there is an outbreak, more than 100 people turned up at the hospital’s A&E trying to get a test.

The hospital said it showed the test and trace system was failing.

The government has admitted the system faces problems which will take weeks to fix, but has defended its record by saying that a record number of tests are being done.

It has blamed the problems on a surge in demand for tests as children return to school, as well as people with no symptoms seeking tests.

The symptoms are a high temperature, new and continuous cough and a loss or change to sense of smell or taste.