A response from the Department of Health and Social Care to local MP Matt Western has insisted that the new Leamington Spa “mega-lab” is “publicly owned and operated,” despite staff being recruited by private companies Medacs and Sodexo.
However there is no claim that they will be NHS employees: Sodexo have been advertising jobs under ‘NHS Test and Trace,’ and offering only fixed term contracts, making no mention of NHS terms and conditions, NHS Pensions, or UKAS accreditation. There has been no explanation of why the new lab could not be run, and staff employed, by the neighbouring University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire.
Full story in The Lowdown, 21 March 2021
