NHS is not failing us but private firms are

DAME Margaret Beckett’s article rightly calls the Government to task for its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic (“Knee-jerk reactions by ministers will lead to more frustration”, October 16).

What I find most concerning however, is the Government’s practice of doling out taxpayers’ money to so-called outsourcing companies for a track and trace system that obviously falls well short of what is needed and for protective equipment that was equally inadequate.

This has cost us billions which could have been used to resource national and regional wings of Public Health England, the very body that could have co-ordinated an effective response to the crisis.

However, the Prime Minister still stands up in Parliament to refer to NHS Track and Trace. National newspapers do the same, to make it seem our NHS is failing.

Let us be clear. The failures and gross mishandling of public funds are not the fault of the NHS, but of private corporations whose pockets have been lined with taxpayers’ money to provide a poor service.

Moreover, this transfer of authority was done without going to tender or parliamentary debate.

Time for all of us as taxpayers and stakeholders in the health service to demand it is immediately returned into public ownership, thus empowering regional health authorities and securing a joined up response to the pandemic.

Failure to do this will not just impact on our finances. It may cost us our lives.

Mike Jones, Belper