BORIS Johnson will face a grilling from senior MPs amid a warning that the "failure" of his Test and Trace system is placing "huge pressure" on the health service.

As the system struggles to cope with soaring demand, people have been turning up to accident and emergency to ask for Covid-19 tests.

Bolton NHS Foundation Trust said that a "high volume" of patients arrived to the A&E requesting tests.

Trust chair Professor Donna Hall said people in Bolton - which has the highest infection rate in England - had been trying to get tests via their GPs and the hospital when they could not get them online or at mobile testing units.

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon voices concerns as Matt Hancock claims test fix will take weeks

She told BBC Radio Four's The World Tonight: "We had 100 people in our accident and emergency unit today, five ambulances queuing outside.

"This failure of the Test and Trace system is placing huge pressure on the NHS and social care."

Hall said the situation now is different to March when they had extra staff drafted in and were not expected to continue with planned operations.

She said: "We're seeing wards full of people. We've now got 30 people who are Covid-positive and we've got five people in our high dependency unit so this is not going away, this virus is not going away."

Asked if there was more that could have been done to avoid this situation, she said: "I've felt that there has been a real lack of a cohesive strategy for the whole containment of Covid-19 and for Test and Trace."

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has admitted that it might be "a matter of weeks" before the testing problems are resolved, and yesterday announced that tests in England will be rationed.

He said there would be "prioritisation" of tests for people with acute clinical need and those in social care settings as he acknowledged "operational challenges" in the system.

The updated prioritisation list which will set out who will be at the front of the queue is yet to be published.

Hancock faced a barrage of complaints in the Commons about people being forced to travel long distances or even enter false addresses in the hope of securing a test.

He said there had been a "sharp rise" in people coming forward for a test, including some who are not eligible but Government sources acknowledged there was no accurate data on the latter.