Tests tsar: Chaos isn’t my fault... blame the scientists

BrITAIN’S testing chief last night appeared to blame Government scientists for not predicting a surge in demand – but insisted the beleaguered system was not failing.

Speaking publicly for the first time since the issue escalated, Baroness Dido Harding admitted daily demand for testing was three to four times the number that laboratories could process.

She told MPs some people were seeking checks when they did not have symptoms.

There has also been a huge surge in children coming forward following the return of schools, she warned.

Baroness Harding said no one appeared to foresee the spike and her team’s forecasts were based on estimates by the Sage group of scientists.

She added: ‘We built our testing capacity plans based on Sage modelling. I don’t think anybody was expecting to see the really sizeable increase in demand we’ve seen over the course of the last few weeks. In none of the modelling was that expected.’

The system has capacity for around 240,000 tests a day but it has been under severe strain since last week.

This has led to chaos in schools with hundreds closing in full or in part, people turning up at A&E units asking for tests and pressure on 111 and 999 phone lines. There have also been scenes of chaos at testing centres.

The latest figures show just 33.3 per cent of people tested in person for coronavirus in England in the week ending September 9 received their result within 24 hours. This was down from 66.5 per cent the previous week.

Boris Johnson had pledged all tests would be returned within 24 hours by the end of June, while over the summer the Government ran an advertising campaign urging people to get tested.

Despite this Baroness Harding, a Tory peer, insisted in her appearance yesterday that the system had collapsed under the weight of demand.

‘I strongly refute that the system is failing,’ she told MPs on the Commons’ science and technology committee. On the surge in demand, she said: ‘With all of our children going back to school, we have seen a very marked increase in young children coming forward to be tested.’

That was said to include a doubling of children under the age of 17, and an even larger increase among those aged five to nine.

The figure that demand is three to four times capacity may include some double-counting, for example through people calling from both a landline and mobile.

Failure to keep up with demand means large sections of the public with suspected virus symptoms are set to be denied a test under prioritisation rules.

Baroness Harding confirmed hospital patients were the number one priority followed by social care and NHS staff like GPs and pharmacists. She admitted turnaround times for tests had lengthened.

‘We made a conscious decision, because of the huge increase in demand, to extend the turnaround times in order to process more tests over the last few weeks,’ she said. Greg Clark, chairman of the science and technology committee, said: ‘It is dispiriting to find we are now in September, in circumstances which are entirely predictable – people are going back to school, people are going back to work – and we haven’t had the right capacity put in place during the quieter times of June, July and August.’

Baroness Harding, who is also now interim executive chairman of the National Institute for Health Protection set up to replace Public Health England, was chief executive of telecoms giant TalkTalk when data linked to 157,000 customers was accessed by hackers.

After spending most of her career in business, having led NHS Improvement for only three years, she was grilled yesterday on why she is the best person for the job.

On her new role at the National Institute for Health Protection, she said: ‘I didn’t apply to do the job I’m doing at the moment.

‘I was asked to serve by ministers and I suspect, like everybody working on the Covid response, I felt it was the appropriate thing to do to serve my country and say yes.’ Giving evidence to the committee, Lord Bethell, a health minister in the Lords, admitted ‘plenty’ of mistakes had been made on testing.

Earlier in the day, David Williams, Second Permanent Secretary, appeared to shift the blame for the crisis on to Baroness Harding.

When asked about laboratory capacity, he told the Commons’ Public Accounts Committee ‘operational delivery issues are run through Dido Harding and team.’

No one can sensibly disagree that, with Covid, the Government has been handed the mother of all poisoned chalices.

Ministers must attempt to run with two packs simultaneously – safeguarding public health and protecting the economy. Sadly, they are making a lamentable hash of it.

For months this newspaper has argued that, minus a vaccine, the crucial weapon in the battle against the virus is a rapid, reliable mass testing regime.

Without one, chaos is reigning. A mix of rising infection rates, schools reopening and the unshuttering of the economy has led to a surge in demand for swabs far outstripping the capacity to process them.

The harm wrought is immense. NHS staff can’t do their jobs until they get the allclear. Schools may have to close again.

Care homes could see cases soar. And millions of workers will stay at home, leaving our battered economy on life support.

Yet this debacle was entirely foreseeable. Yes, we have formidable capacity. But why, over summer, didn’t the Government set up more labs? Why weren’t more staff hired to analyse swabs? Why didn’t ministers spell out explicitly who should seek tests?

Ludicrously, Baroness Dido Harding, the testing czar, denies the system is ‘failing’. Come in Baroness, this is Earth calling!

She also shuns responsibility for the fiasco, shamefully trying to wriggle off the hook by pointing the finger at scientists.

Worryingly for Boris Johnson, the public increasingly blames him.

With ten million Britons hit by liberty-limiting curbs, it is clear – and understandable – patience is wearing thin.

It will wear even thinner if he imposes another gruelling national lockdown.

Reversing us back into such trauma would be insane, inflicting a colossal cost in terms of economy, jobs, health and quality of life. And for what? To eradicate a virus harming a tiny fraction of the population.

This underachieving Government should stop panicking, and slam into overdrive. overcoming the testing shambles by delivering its promises is imperative.

Maintaining public trust and confidence is paramount during a pandemic, when painful sacrifices are demanded.

Ministers ought not to presume this well of tolerance is bottomless.