The Times has reported that Kate Bingham, head of the government’s vaccine taskforce, has failed to publicly declare that she manages private investments in two companies involved in the race … Read more
coronavirus
The Guardian has revealed that millions of medical masks purchased by the British government for £45m are missing after a major PPE deal collapsed amid accusations of fraud. The Department … Read more
George Monbiot exposes how Serco and Sitel has promoted teenagers and students employed to do the simplest job in the tracing chain, calling those who have been identified as contacts … Read more
Leaked emails and texts seen by The Lowdown and other news sites have revealed moves to bolster the clinical tier of the government’s contact-tracing programme with untrained staff from outsourcing … Read more
Boris Johnson and his chief scientific adviser have admitted to failings in England’s £12bn test-and-trace system as contact-tracing fell to a new low and waiting times for test results soared … Read more
An investigation by The Times has found that medical companies have charged the NHS inflated prices for ventilators. The government paid Excalibur Healthcare Services £135 million to supply 2,700 ventilators, … Read more
A series of contract awards, which total £1.6 bn, published for the first time shows that Circle Health and Spire Healthcare were handed the largest contracts to provide extra staff … Read more
The FT reports that the UK government has awarded £10bn worth of contracts related to the coronavirus crisis to private companies since March, mostly without a competitive tender. The research … Read more
Sky News reports that more than 1,000 consultants from Deloitte are now working on Test and Trace, according to documents released by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) … Read more
Digital Health reports figures revealed during a Public Accounts Committee hearing that show that around £25 million is expected to be spent this financial year on the new app, while … Read more
The coronavirus test and trace system was condemned as “barely functional” today as its tsar admitted that demand was up to four times capacity, while 90% of tests were failing to … Read more
Serco has won an additional £45m to provide COVID test centres, openDemocracy has reported. The deal has not been made public, but provides a major additional role for the controversial … Read more
The Guardian reports that the privately-run laboratories that analyse swabs from people in the community, including care homes, were stretched to capacity even in late August, and were unable to … Read more
The latest available NHS England figures (September 3) show that of available beds open overnight, an undifferentiated 110,000 beds of all types (general and acute, mental health, maternity, Learning Difficulties) were … Read more
The Doctors’ Association has criticised the coronavirus testing system as “an utter shambles” after collecting a dossier of cases where the system has led to long journeys and considerable waits … Read more
The UK’s test-and-trace system for coronavirus has a backlog of nearly 200,000 swabs, resulting in samples being sent to laboratories in Italy and Germany as the Government’s privately run system struggles … Read more
The private sector has been the winner in the Government’s response to COVID-19 in England – but why, given the growing and predictable litany of mistakes it has made? A … Read more
NHS England has announced its intention to seek private hospital groups to help with reducing waiting lists. The planned contract could result in a spend of £10bn on outsourcing work … Read more
The centralised test and trace system run by companies, like Serco and Sitel, is cutting 6,000 contact tracer jobs and allocating roles to regional teams to work with councils. This … Read more
NHS England has terminated a number of its block contracts including those with all the inner London private hospitals — established at the beginning of the covid outbreak, despite a … Read more
