Testing and trace is a vital component of infectious disease control
Against the advice of public health experts, the government outsourced both elements of the process to favourable private companies, with no expertise
Resulting in a dog’s breakfast of incompetence
2/
Deloitte was given the contract, of undisclosed value, to set up off-site testing centres & run the new Lighthouse Laboratories, bypassing existing NHS infrastructure
Deloitte then went on to outsource the running of the testing centres to numerous other corporations
3/
From the start, there has been a catalogue of cock-ups
- samples lost
- leaking test vials
- barely trained staff
- people directed to nonexistent testing centres
A hospital in Surrey had to take over a centre as staff were sent wrong results
5/
Delays in processing results has left NHS staff unable to work
GPs & local teams have been unable to receive timely, results from these private testing sites
It is this basic failure, that public health experts in Leicester state contributed to the extended lockdown there
6/
Serco & Sitel (with NO expertise) have been awarded multi-million contracts to carry out a spectacularly ineffective tracing system
Again bypassing local public health teams, for which contact tracing is their bread and butter