GM has had quite a good run in getting data etc out of govt, but as one door opens, another shuts. Just as the new restrictions came in, the army handed mobile testing units over to the private sector - and now councils are tearing their hair out again
manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-m…
manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-m…
In short: within days of the govt handing over the military programme to outsourcers (around the same day as the new lockdown rules came in), there had already been major problems in both Manchester and Oldham. 1/
In Manchester, there was an outbreak at the Royal Mail on August 2. It took four days to get G4S in to do mass testing; when they arrived, they said they weren’t contracted to do the night shift. Council had to go to the top of govt to sort. 2/
In Oldham, a mobile unit was requested by the council for Shaw, last Tues. Didn’t show. Then the council learned on Friday that one was coming that day. Ppl booked tests in the expectation it would be there from 10.30am. It arrived at 1pm. They had left by then 3/
Bear in mind, Oldham has one of the highest rates of infection in the country rn and at the time Manchester’s was climbing fast. The Royal Mail employs 900 people from all over GM. 4/
General view in the local system seems to be this is about the DHSC attempting to control something it doesn’t understand. One official: ‘A significant issue is local discussion and agreements made between council and the unit’s operator then being overridden by DHSC, who are 5/
...trying to control what goes on, without any idea of local circumstances or discussions and not countenancing any pragmatic flexibility to fit the individual situation and then landing local partners with a mess to clear up.’ Eesh. 6/
Perhaps it’s teething problems, ofc. But interestingly GM saw this coming a few days earlier, on July 29. 
So...yeah. Hopefully this is something that won’t take as long to sort as all the other local-national things that have cropped up since March. /Ends
