The federal government’s flagship test-and-trace system has failed to realize “its essential goal” to chop an infection ranges and assist Britain return to regular regardless of being handed an “eye-watering” £37bn in taxpayers’ money, the Commons spending watchdog has warned.
NHS check and hint was arrange in Might final 12 months because the UK emerged from the primary lockdown. It was led by Dido Harding, a Conservative peer and businesswoman who beforehand labored for Tesco and TalkTalk. She was appointed by the then well being secretary, Matt Hancock, who praised her “sensible” work on the pandemic.
In a damning report, the general public accounts committee concluded that NHS check and hint “has not achieved its essential goal to assist break chains of Covid-19 transmission and allow individuals to return in direction of a extra regular lifestyle” regardless of receiving about 20% of the NHS’s total annual finances – £37 bn – over two years.
As a substitute, the report stated, because the finish of October 2020 “the nation has had two extra nationwide lockdowns and case numbers have risen dramatically”. On the time of its launch, Boris Johnson claimed NHS check and hint can be “world-beating”. Nonetheless, the 26-page report discovered that its goals had been “overstated or not achieved”.
The timing of the report’s conclusions is vastly embarrassing for the federal government because it continues to withstand introducing measures to stem the rise in Covid instances. NHS check and hint is a key pillar of its “plan A” strategy to autumn and winter, which ministers say is enough to keep away from a disaster.
Even now, uptake of NHS check and hint continues to be “variable” as some susceptible persons are a lot much less more likely to take a check than others, the report says. Pressing enhancements are wanted in public outreach, with greater than 60% of people that expertise Covid-19 signs reporting that they haven’t been examined, and sure teams, akin to older individuals, males, and a few ethnic minorities, much less more likely to interact with the service.
The programme can also be “nonetheless not versatile sufficient to fulfill altering demand and dangers losing public cash”, the report provides. MPs on the cross-party committee warned that NHS check and hint desperately wants a “correct long-term technique”.
The report additionally criticised the dealing with of the money awarded to NHS check and hint. It stated the programme has nonetheless not managed to chop the variety of costly contractors paid a median of £1,100 a day. Some have been paid charges of greater than £6,000 a day.
Dame Meg Hillier, chair of the committee, stated: “The nationwide test-and-trace programme was allotted eye-watering sums of taxpayers’ cash within the midst of a worldwide well being and financial disaster. It set out daring ambitions however has failed to realize them regardless of the huge sums thrown at it.
“Solely 14% of 691m lateral movement exams despatched out had outcomes reported, and who is aware of what number of took the required motion primarily based on the outcomes they received, or what number of had been by no means used. The continued reliance on the over-priced consultants who ‘delivered’ this state of affairs will by itself value the taxpayer a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of kilos.”
Dr Simon Clarke, affiliate professor in mobile microbiology on the College of Studying, stated the MPs’ report uncovered “an incredible many shortcomings within the NHS check and hint service”.
“Harding beforehand boasted that the operation was [the] measurement of Tesco, with out conceding that the grocery store chain truly works,” he stated. “Larger consideration appears to have been paid to headline-grabbing initiatives to construct up the system than to making sure it truly did its job.”
He added: “Failure to chop infections might imply that we suffered extra illness and dying, and longer time spent dwelling beneath restrictions than would in any other case have been the case.”
Michael Hopkins, professor of innovation administration on the College of Sussex enterprise college, warned that the report “comes at a vital time, with Covid instances and scepticism of NHS check and hint each rising”.
A authorities spokesperson stated: “We have now rightly drawn on the intensive experience of quite a few private and non-private sector companions who’ve been invaluable in serving to us sort out the virus.
“We have now constructed a testing community from scratch that may course of hundreds of thousands of exams a day – greater than any European nation – offering a free LFD (lateral movement gadget) or PCR check to anyone who wants one.
“The brand new UK Well being Safety Company will consolidate the information that now exists throughout our well being system to assist us sort out future pandemics and threats.”