NHS campaigners disappointed by MP’s response to calls for better Covid-19 Test & Trace

A LOCAL NHS campaigning group has expressed its disappointment in local MP, Michelle Donelan’s response to their calls for management of the Covid-19 Test & Trace scheme to be given to local public health services.

The MP’s reply to the group’s concerns has been described as “non-specific” and lacking reassurance that “existing expertise and taxpayer funds are being properly deployed” to create an effective Test & Trace scheme. 

The group has highlighted that the government’s commitment to the private sector and centralisation of the Test & Trace scheme has not worked.

And the group has championed a report by The Guardian, which says that “local test and trace works better”. According to the latest government figures shared in The Guardian’s report, the government’s centralised system currently reaches just 62.6% of contacts, while local authorities are reaching 97%.

They have also raised concerns about what will happen if there isn’t a working Test & Trace system in place over the autumn and winter, in the event of a second wave of Covid-19.

A letter from a member of the group to the local MP, Michelle Donelan, said, “Polling out this week reveals that 74% want local public health teams, rather than Serco and Sitel, to run NHS Test and Trace.

“Local public health teams and local health services (including GPs and NHS labs) must be put back in charge of testing and contact tracing in the community now, all across the UK.”

In her response to the group, Michelle Donelan MP has praised the introduction of the Test & Trace service and said that she is  “confident” that private sector providers, like Serco and Sitel, “will be held to the highest standards to ensure that the best service possible is delivered.”

The MP wrote, “As part of an unprecedented response to this pandemic, my colleagues in the Department of Health and Social Care have drawn on the expertise and resources of a number of public and private sector partners to support our NHS and social care sector. The Government has been guided by the science throughout, consulting with a range of experts in each field, and has made significant progress in testing capacity and analysis.

“Testing and NHS Test and Trace services are being provided through the NHS, and while it is true that providers like Serco and Sitel are working with the public sector to deliver these services, I am confident that these providers will be held to the highest standards to ensure that the best service possible is delivered.

“It is a testament to the ingenuity of British businesses that they have been able to adapt existing resources in a time of great need for the country, and I am extremely grateful to all organisations that have offered their services at this time.”

About the MP’s response, coordinator of the local NHS Campaigning Group, Shirley McCarthy told Melksham News, “Our group campaigns for an NHS that is directly, publicly provided. That is why our member wrote to our MP suggesting that more responsibility and resourcing was allocated to local Public Health Services, who have well-established expertise in following up cases of certain communicable diseases. 

“Many of the public haven’t previously been aware of this under-appreciated and unsung aspect of what, since 2012, has been part of the local authority’s role.

“The very non-specific reply of our MP refers to what should happen, not what is happening with ‘Test and Trace’ and certainly doesn’t reassure us that existing expertise and taxpayer funds are being properly deployed.”