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Wednesday, March 10, 2021

English test and trace system fails to make an impact

The BBC reports on the views of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee which has concluded the impact of England's NHS Test and Trace system is still unclear, despite the UK government setting aside £37bn for it over two years.

The Committee said the system was set up on the basis it would help prevent future lockdowns, but since its creation there had been two more, describing the spending as "unimaginable" and warning the taxpayer could not be treated like an "ATM machine":

The MPs' report questioned: 
  • An over-reliance on consultants, with some paid more than £6,600 a day 
  • A failure to be ready for the surge in demand for tests seen last September 
  • Never meeting its target to turn around tests done face-to-face within 24 hours 
  • Contact tracers only having enough work to fill half their time even when cases were rising 
  • A splurge on rapid tests with no clear evidence they will help
Committee chairwoman Meg Hillier said it was hard to point to a "measurable difference" the test-and-trace system had made. "The promise on which this huge expense was justified - avoiding another lockdown - has been broken, twice," she said.
Spending on testing and tracing amounted to £22bn in 2020-21 and another £15bn in 2021-22:

The committee acknowledges significant investment was needed to set up the system at speed after the pandemic struck.

But it criticised an over-use of consultants, saying it needed to "wean itself off its persistent reliance on consultants" which were costing an average of £1,100 a day each and some of whom had been paid more than £6,600 a day.

On last count, there were still 2,500 being used, the MPs said.

Mr Shapps was asked why expensive consultants were still being used at a time when the government had said a 1% pay rise for NHS staff was all that it could afford. He said he did not know the detail but defended the "complexities" of the job that Test and Trace needed to do.

The complexity of the system was also laid bare with news that it had involved more than 400 contracts being signed with 217 different suppliers. Some 70% of the value of those contracts were directly awarded rather than being put out to tender.

 Despite that the system has still never met its target to turnaround all tests in a face-to-face setting in 24 hours.

And it was found lacking at the crucial point in September when there was a surge in demand for testing.

By contrast, contact tracers have been under-used with just half of time spent working on cases in October.
As Dr Billy Palmer, of the Nuffield Trust think tank, says: "The promise of a world-beating test-and-trace system has just not materialised, and the eye-watering sums of public money poured into this system are set to increase even further."
# posted by Peter Black : 10:13 AM
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