Kate Garraway slams Test and Trace program in documentary jibe

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Serco, an outsourcing company has won a new contract worth up to £322 million pounds to run coronavirus testing sites in the UK for another year. Bosses said they signed a new deal with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to operate regional, local and mobile testing centres in England and Northern Ireland following a competitive tendering process.

The contract will run for 12 months, with an option of a six-month extension.

Reports have also shown that Serco predicts its profits will jump 50 percent during the first half of the year due to its continued work in the Test and Trace service.

Serco chief executive Rupert Soames said the company was “proud of the part we have played” in Test and Trace and are “delighted that the DHSC (Department of Health and Social Care) has selected us to continue to support them in providing these services for at least the next 12 months”.

Earlier this year, Serco faced criticism over the large profits it has made from the pandemic and its decision to start paying a dividend to shareholders.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said in February it was “outrageous” that dividends would be reintroduced this year.

He tweeted at the time: “Taxpayers’ money shouldn’t be given to Serco’s shareholders via dividends.

“The Government should have placed Test and Trace in the hands of our NHS and local communities.”

Now, a new report published by a watchdog on the success of the Test and Trace programme has raised further questions about the government’s continued expenditure on the system without solid evidence of efficacy.

The National Audit Office (NAO) review highlighted poor turnaround times for testing during the winter, as well as a continued over-reliance on consultants.

The NAO concluded that “local authorities still struggle to get timely access to the data they need to deal with localised outbreaks of COVID-19, and they are unclear on the planned operating model after July 2021”.

The NAO also warned that the effectiveness of the service was still being undermined by low levels of public compliance, both in terms of coming forward for testing and adhering to isolating.

This is the second report on Test and Trace conducted by the NAO – the first, published earlier this year, was deeply critical and said there was no evidence the programme had made any clear impact at all.

This more recent report, looking at performance from November to April, said that weaknesses remain but pointed to signs of progress, including the creating of local council contact tracing teams and an increase in speed of contact tracing when tests were carried out at official sites.

However, the report still concluded that evidence to show the programme is a reasonable use of taxpayer money had yet to be seen.

The report said: “To achieve value for money NHST&T must be able to demonstrate both that the interventions it delivers are effective in achieving its objective, and that the mix of interventions is the most cost-effective use of public resources.”

Meg Hillier, chair of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, said the findings were “deeply disappointing” and the service continued to be “plagued by the same issues”.

However, a DHSC spokesperson told Express.co.uk: “NHS Test and Trace has played an essential role in combating this pandemic and the NAO has recognised many of the rapid improvements we have made in the short lifespan of this organisation.

“The testing and tracing being delivered across the country is saving lives every single day and helping us send this virus into retreat by breaking chains of transmission and spotting outbreaks wherever they exist.”

Mike Rhodes, founder of ConsultMyApp, a consultancy that helps apps optimise functionality, told Express.co.uk that a large part of the Test and Trace programme’s failings can be put down to mismanagement of the app which forms part of the programme.

He said: “The Government and its consultants have failed to understand the very basics of App development, marketing and user engagement that would have otherwise ensured the system was running to an optimal level.

“The government’s poor recruitment of talent for Test & Trace has resulted in users being inaccurately notified of COVID-exposure, told to isolate for additional time, or failing to notify users at all, all of which has led to significant uninstall numbers and a lost opportunity for society to exit this mess sooner.”

He added: “With most other apps, this level of immature development and marketing may simply be a reason to uninstall or move to a competitor app, but with Test & Trace it is quite literally a case of life and death.
“Achieving downloads on only 40 percent of the potential devices is, quite simply, a travesty; a travesty that has effectively cheated the NHS out of significant funds that someone must be held accountable for.”

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