Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
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Calls to strip Serco of testing Local health should get cash
CALLS are growing to hand the £300million cost of renewing the test and trace deal to local health groups after the botched handling of the system by private firms.
Ministers faced demands to strip outsourcing company Serco of the contract after its coronavirus contact tracers spoke to an average of only 2.4 people each.
Its £108million contract will be the first to come up for renewal on August 23, but Labour has branded the outfit “unfit for purpose”.
And furious campaigners urged the
Government to hand the £300million cost of securing a new deal to local health authorities, that have better results when it comes to contacting Covid-19 victims. It could save lives and avoid another lockdown.
Serco, which has a history of gaffes with public service contracts, and Sitel are two of the biggest of several firms recruiting contact tracers who work from home for NHS Test and Trace.
But We Own It campaigns officer Pascale Robinson said: “Not a single penny more should be spent on the private system. Instead, local public health protection teams should be given the resources they need to deliver the test, track and trace system we desperately need.
“The current system is failing catastrophically. The privatised national system, has been an unmiti
gated disaster. Despite millions of pounds being pumped into these companies, the percentage of people they’re reaching is well below the underfunded but experienced operation run by local health teams.”
Ex-chief Scientific Officer and Independent Sage founder Sir David King added: “The Government made a disastrous mistake giving contact
tracing to a firm with no healthcare expertise. The Serco contract is up for renewal this month and they’ll get £300million if it’s extended. This is not working.”
Shadow Health Secretary Jon Ashworth and Shadow Cabinet minister Rachel Reeves have written to Health Secretary Matt Hancock demanding he axes the private deals.
They said: “No additional funding should be given to Serco. The stakes are too high to tolerate failure.
“We have long argued that test and trace should be led by local areas, backed up by the resources and national support to make this happen.”
It comes as the UK Covid-19 death toll rose by 21 to 46,526 and total cases hit 311,641, up 816. Public Health
England has removed some historical deaths reported after it became clear they did not have the virus.
Data for England released last week showed a worsening NHS Test and Trace performance. Staff should trace those who may have been in contact with people testing positive for Covid and order them to self-isolate.
But only around eight in 10 people
who come forward and record positive are reached. Of these only eight in 10 agree to hand over details of recent contacts. Of these contacts, just over seven in 10 can be reached. In contrast, for cases that were handed over to local officials, 98% of close contacts were reached. The private failure has led to many authorities setting up their own systems. They include Greater Manchester, Sandwell in the West Midlands and Calderdale, West Yorks. The Government yesterday announced a number of
NHS Test and Trace staff will be allocated to local authority testing teams. It also said 6,000 of the 18,000 contact tracers working via Serco and Sitel were at risk of redundancy and will no longer be involved in contact tracing.
Serco said: “We have played an important part in helping reaching hundreds of thousands of people who might otherwise have passed on the virus. We are 93% successful in persuading people to isolate where we are able to have conversations.”
NHS Test and Trace executive chair Baroness Dido Harding, a Tory peer, added: “We have always been clear NHS Test and Trace must be local by default and that we do not operate alone. We work with and through partners across the country.”