A DAD who waited five days for a call back from NHS 111 over fears he caught coronavirus while on holiday in Italy said he has now been given the "all clear".

Dean Hall, who works in Basingstoke, has spoken to the Gazette about his 10-day ordeal, which resulted in several of his colleagues with compromised immune systems being sent home to work, and has raised concerns about the NHS's ability to deal with an outbreak.

The 45-year-old father-of-two went on a five-day tour of European countries with his daughter during the half-term holiday and returned on February 18.

He was then then sent home from his job working on IT projects involving the British Army on February 24 with a cough, before calling 111 the next day suffering from a fever.

He was initially told not to worry because he had returned before the official advice on Italy was issued.

However, after his symptoms worsened, he said he was promised a call back from a clinician.

The dad was more concerned about passing the virus onto others, including his elderly mother, who had pneumonia four times last year, and military personnel who he had worked with since returning from Italy.

Mr Hall called 111 again on February 27 having still not heard back, and was told he was on the list.

He said: "I had on BBC Question Time and the health secretary was on there so I messaged in to the show and said if the UK government has this in hand, why am I still waiting for a call back?"

The dad finally received a call on Saturday, February 29.

He said: "They said they had my details passed from 111 and I had a cold and what could they do for me. I said 'you're joking?'"

After explaining his fears of having caught coronavirus, Mr Hall was told to attend Frimley Park Hospital for a test the same day.

He said: "A nurse told me to go around the back of the building. I sat in a side room and she took details and went back out and came back with a plastic mask. She sat over the other side of the room initially. She came in and handed me some swabs and told me to put one in each nostril and one in the back of my mouth."

It wasn't until Tuesday, March 3 that Mr Hall finally received the results giving him the all clear of coronavirus.

Having spent nine days at home in Farnborough shut in his room trying to stay away from his flatmate, Mr Hall said he was relieved to finally be allowed outside after self-isolating.

However, he said his experience has raised concerns as to whether the NHS is equipped to deal with a possible outbreak, after the health secretary warned this week that the virus poses an "increasingly serious" threat to the UK, with the number of confirmed cases in the country rising to 51.

Mr Hall told the Gazette: "We know the government has made massive cuts to the NHS. They treat doctors and nurses appallingly. The NHS has done everything it can but they are massively overstretched. There were mistakes made and I shouldn't have waited five days for a call back…it's a complete failing of the government in underfunding the NHS."

The government has published a plan to tackle a mass outbreak of the illness, which could lead to the army being called on to enforce isolation, police services responding only to serious crimes and the NHS being forced to discharge patients and cancel operations.