‘Eye-watering’ bill for test and trace
THE NHS Test and Trace programme failed to break Covid transmission chains, despite being handed “eye-watering” sums of money, MPs said.
The House of Commons public accounts committee said the scheme’s outcomes were “muddled” and objectives “overstated or not achieved”.
A report said despite being given £37billion over two years – equal to 20 per cent of the NHS’s annual budget – “continued over-reliance” on consultants was “likely to cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds”.
The scheme had focused on getting programmes up and running rather than ensuring they “delivered the benefits they promised”, the report said.
Committee chairwoman Dame Meg Hillier said: “The Test and Trace programme was allocated eyewatering sums of taxpayers’ money in the midst of a global health and economic crisis. It set out bold ambitions but has failed to achieve them.
“Only 14 per cent of 691 million lateral flow tests sent out had results reported, and who knows how many took the necessary action based on the results they got, or how many were never used.”
But UK Health Security Agency chief Dr Jenny Harries said Test and Trace had played an “essential role” and was “saving lives every single day”.
She said testing capacity, turnaround times and speed and reach of tracing had improved, more than 323 million tests were done and over 19.9 million people contacted.
A Government spokesman said: “We have built a testing network that can process millions of tests a day – more than any European country.”