Superb short editorial from Fiona Godlee, @fgodlee, Editor of the BMJ, about the UK crisis in test, trace, isolate policy. blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/05/01… (1)
"Much promised “ramping up” of testing has failed to deliver a workable system (doi:10.1136/bmj.m1922). Rules for who could be tested made no practical sense and, even with the help of misleading statistics (doi:10.1136/bmj.m1863), have failed to hide the extent of the gap... (2)
"..between what was needed and what could be achieved. Rather than build on existing locally integrated systems, testing has been contracted out to four large private “Lighthouse” laboratories. GPs and emergency departments can’t order tests.. (3)
"...and don’t get sent the results (doi:10.1136/bmj.m1881). The top-down vertical system has been fraught with operational problems and delays. And that’s before we get onto the urgent need for contact tracing and isolation.. (4)
"...(doi:10.1136/bmj.m1859), without which we stand no chance of suppressing the virus sufficiently to safely exit lockdown (blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/05/01…) (5)
