Test and trace ‘chaos’ after surprise launch

BIRMINGHAM City Council and contact tracers have revealed the ‘chaos’ caused by the Government’s hurried launch of the vital test and trace scheme.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock caught councils out when he suddenly announced the scheme was going live last Thursday. It had been thought that it was initially going to be only a pilot scheme in 11 areas including Solihull, so the roll-out caught Birmingham by surprise.

One contact tracer who spoke to the Post said: “It was a very lastminute announcement.

“It does look like it was part of a news management issue around the

Dominic Cummings story. out of the blue.

“It’s already very hard to tell people to isolate for 14 days without symptoms – but I do think the Cummings issue has made our job a lot harder. The system relies heavily on public trust and some of that has definitely been eroded.

“I’m not certain it can be done now without penalties to enforce it.” Council chiefs confirmed they had just a couple of hours’ notice of the announcement. It was also news to thousands of contact tracers, who were told that night to be ready to start work next day.

One, who lives on the outskirts of

It came

Birmingham, said he was contacted that night, after the announcement, and told to urgently complete a training module and be ready to start making calls next morning.

The training consisted of a list of instructions on how to handle awkward callers. He was told his credentials would be issued by email, ready for him to log in next morning.

The instructions just set out various ethical scenarios and pushbacks, for exampleL what if someone was having an affair and didn’t want to share details, what if they said they would not isolate,” he said.

But the promised credentials did not arrive. Fellow tracers reported a chaotic system, with people unable to log in, and the system appearing to crash repeatedly.

At Birmingham City Council there was a sense of frustration about the handling of the issue.

The council will play a major role in ensuring any outbreaks are managed and contained, and will also be responsible for co-ordinating any local lockdowns – but it is clear those plans are still being drawn up, with officials waiting on Government instructions and funds. A spokesperson said they were notified by the Government on May 23 that it was planning to launch the service nationally ‘at a future date’ and that councils should help develop a local outbreak control plan during June. The council team began discussing its local plans as a result, expecting the pilot project to launch first but then, on the afternoon of May 27, the council learned the national programme “would start to roll out from Thursday, May 28”.

They were told further guidance would be issued, with clarification around funding. “We were given a few hours’ notice of the launch but there remain many unanswered questions and gaps in implementation,” added the spokesman.