Health secretary Sajid Javid’s decision last week to force through another ‘surge capacity’ deal with independent providers, to protect the health service from being overwhelmed by the Omicron variant, has … Read more
coronavirus
The BMA has criticised the government for striking a costly agreement by NHS England to block book private hospital beds in case they are required for NHS patients in the … Read more
A box of personal protective equipment (PPE) which was sold to the NHS by Clandeboyes, a Northern Ireland sweets wholesaler, that cost the taxpayer more than £1,000 during the first … Read more
A list of the 47 companies referred to the government’s VIP fast-track lane for contracts to supply PPE has been revealed. These are five of the significant political figures whose … Read more
David Meller, a Conservative party donor who supported Michael Gove’s Tory leadership bid, won £164m in Covid contracts after the minister referred his firm to a “VIP lane” that awarded … Read more
Alun Cairns, a former Welsh secretary, took a £15,000-a-year job at a diagnostics company a few weeks before it was part of a consortium that secured a £75 million government … Read more
The Times has reported that Randox, the diagnostics company that paid Owen Paterson as a lobbyist, won a £133 million Covid-19 testing contract days before government officials concluded that it … Read more
The Times reports that former Conservative councillor, Steve Dechan, received a £120 million government contract for face shields whose quality is so doubtful that fewer than 1 in 400 have … Read more
The Guardian has seen internal emails that suggest the government gave “VIP treatment” to a firm offering Covid testing facilities which had entered the system “informally” because Matt Hancock was “a good … Read more
Serco has been awarded a new contract worth up to £322 million to continue running Covid-19 testing sites for another year. The company now runs 20% of centres in England and … Read more
A report from the National Audit Office has found that almost 600m lateral flow tests given to the public in England may not yet have been used and that the … Read more
A total, constipated silence from the NHS and ministers shrouds the long-delayed new “mega lab” that was supposed to have opened in Leamington Spa last January as part of the … Read more
A report by a local council in the North East of England has found that failures in England’s Test and Trace system are partly responsible for a surge in the … Read more
The National Audit Office (NAO) has been blocked by the government from revealing the names of companies that were directed to a ‘VIP lane’ to win lucrative COVID contracts. The … Read more
A court has heard that ministers “lobbied” officials to chase the progress of contracts for the supply of personal protective equipment that were being processed through a government “VIP lane” … Read more
The Independent has learnt that at a “critical juncture” in the pandemic, thousands of clinical staff working on contact tracing for the government’s test and trace service will be axed. The … Read more
The government has been urged to publish details of up to £2bn in Covid-19 contracts to provide extra capacity during the pandemic awarded to private healthcare companies, including some that have … Read more
Spire Healthcare has stated that it is “cautiously optimistic” that trading and profits will bounce back to 2019 levels after reporting income down by 6.2% to £920m during 2020, not least because … Read more
Sir David King, a former government chief scientist, in an interview in The Guardian has accused Boris Johnson’s government of corruption, privatising the NHS by stealth, operating a “chumocracy” and … Read more
Byline Times and The Citizens overview of contract awards reveals that one year after the first COVID-19 lockdown almost a billion pounds in Government contracts has been awarded to 15 … Read more
