Track and Trace

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

We have different takes BFYP. I think we have a moral obligation to do this so that those advising policy have the best possible data. It takes less time than it takes to have a piss and you only need to do it maybe twice a week. Not trying to be sanctimonious here but I've taken 19 LF tests and logged every one on the NHS and Zoe sites. It's a microscopic inconvenience for a potentially very big societal benefit.

With respect my morals are fine and with the many tests, blood tests etc I do for covid research (significantly more than 19) I probably spend vastly more time providing scientific evidence than many.

The point was to state part of the reason, it is easy to forget with the tonnes of other things going on at the same time when these tests are done, specifically when there's nothing to prompt you to remind you to complete the results etc, which perhaps there should be.

[BillyStubbsTears]

BFYP
I wasn't having a go at your morals in that sense. The phrase I used meant that I think we all have a responsibility to do what we can to defeat this bas**rd and it sounds like you do a lot more than me.

But I don't get how people would forget to log the tests. At some point you check the equipment to see what the result is. Surely THAT is the point at which you record the result?

[BillyStubbsTears]

For the record, I do find the test reporting website unnecessarily cumbersome. I've entered exactly the same boilerplate details for every test, and you'd think a sensibly designed system would default to those and ask if you want to change them, rather than requiring them to be input again. Then it would take 5 seconds to report rather than 30 seconds.

[Ldr]

It may be worth noting, the 3 boxes I have game from 2 sources ( pharmacy and official testing site) and neither asked that results be notified centrally

[BillyStubbsTears]

Ldr.
If it's the same kits that I've had (and mine have come from 4 different sources) it directly tells you in the instructions to record your result. I was also asked to do that every time I've picked up kits from the local test centre.

[Ldr]

Doesn’t say in mine

[BillyStubbsTears]

This is the instruction leaflet I've had with every batch of LF tests.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/957271/COVID-19-self-test-instructions.pdf

Page 15.

[albie]

Dido the Disaster and her T+T has been called out by the HoC report;
https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/12/mp_report_test_and_trace/

What sanctions are proposed to bring these dodgy deals to account by the custard fart....none that I can see!

[ColinDouglasHandshake]

We have never tested or downloaded the app and will never do so. Even if we are ill. Our kid has been attending school since April where they are supposed to test twice a week but we have refused testing from day 1. 

Unsurprisingly all the kids and their parents are still alive over 6 months on and their more vulnerable Grandparents have had their jabs. On we go.

Visited Buxton Museum a view weeks ago and the lady greeting us asked us if we wanted to leave our tracing details or download track and trace and i said no thanks. She let us in anyway as legally there is nothing she could have done. Nice, friendly lady though, but just that we refuse to participate in this charade.

[SydneyRover]

£37Bn, a waste of money and still counting, sheesh

[bpoolrover]

£37Bn, a waste of money and still counting, sheesh
While it is a lot of money and you would
Think there would of been a cheaper way and better way, it's not all a waste of money

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

Absolutley bpool.  As I said my experience of it was pretty good and strong, quite odd to think it's seen as a failure.

[SydneyRover]

''The report also criticised the handling of the cash awarded to NHS test and trace. It said the programme has still not managed to cut the number of expensive contractors paid an average of £1,100 a day. Some have been paid rates of more than £6,000 a day''

[SydneyRover]

''“Only 14% of 691m lateral flow tests sent out had results reported, and who knows how many took the necessary action based on the results they got, or how many were never used. The continued reliance on the over-priced consultants who ‘delivered’ this state of affairs will by itself cost the taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds.”''

[SydneyRover]

''NHS Test and Trace is a government-funded service in England, established in 2020 to track and help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Despite its name, the programme is not in fact run by the NHS but is part of the UK Health Security Agency; the service and the agency are headed by Jenny Harries''

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHS_Test_and_Trace#:~:text=NHS%20Test%20and%20Trace%20is,are%20headed%20by%20Jenny%20Harries.

''Dr Simon Clarke, associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said the MPs’ report exposed “a great many shortcomings in the NHS test and trace service”.

“Harding previously boasted that the operation was [the] size of Tesco, without conceding that the supermarket chain actually works,” he said. “Greater attention seems to have been paid to headline-grabbing initiatives to build up the system than to ensuring it actually did its job.”

He added: “Failure to cut infections could mean that we suffered more sickness and death, and longer time spent living under restrictions than would otherwise have been the case.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/27/nhs-test-and-trace-failed-its-main-objective-says-spending-watchdog

[BillyStubbsTears]

And that's the problem.

We've spent a phenomenal amount on "test". And done and excellent job on that.

But we have been a disaster on "trace" and enforcing isolation.

Other countries have managed the process better and have better outcomes for less cost.

[bpoolrover]

Quite agree they could have done things better, on that first link syd posted people are slagging it off but saying they were pestered when had to isolate, I find that a bit hypocritical

[albie]

Link to the actual report here
https://committees.parliament.uk/work/1299/test-and-trace-2/news/158262/muddled-overstated-eyewateringly-expensive-pac-damning-on-test-trace-that-has-failed-on-main-objectives/

Not a good look, from the point of view of the public finances.....or effectiveness....or accountability!

[SydneyRover]

Quite agree they could have done things better, on that first link syd posted people are slagging it off but saying they were pestered when had to isolate, I find that a bit hypocritical

That sound's like teacher's remark for just passing, they failed miserably and if the system was shown not to be working as it did very early, they should have changed to another plan. 'Didn't meet it's main objective' I think they found.

Added

“Muddled, overstated, eye-wateringly expensive”: PAC damning on Test & Trace that has “failed on main objectives”

[Nudga]

Testing to see if you're poorly.

2021.

[BigH]

The notion that you could run a national trace and isolate system from a call centre in Milton Keynes was just bonkers from the off.

A bit like trying to solve a murder in Leeds from a call centre in Brighton.

All the regional public health experts knew what was required, ironically from decades of experience of limiting the spread of STDs in local communities. Yet Hancock and Harding knew better. Both since sacked of course.

That £37bn - billion!! - is money you and I will never get back.

[SydneyRover]

The notion that you could run a national trace and isolate system from a call centre in Milton Keynes was just bonkers from the off.

A bit like trying to solve a murder in Leeds from a call centre in Brighton.

All the regional public health experts knew what was required, ironically from decades of experience of limiting the spread of STDs in local communities. Yet Hancock and Harding knew better. Both since sacked of course.

That £37bn - billion!! - is money you and I will never get back.

I guess the Lansley Act had something to do with that BH.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/31/how-a-decade-of-privatisation-and-cuts-exposed-england-to-coronavirus

Build back what you broke

[Not Now Kato]

[BigH]

One of the reasons why the government are stalling on a public inquiry into the pandemic.

You just know that what it'd reveal around this whole procurement fiasco would be jaw-dropping.

Instead we'll have to look forward to the Scottish Govt inquiry, due to start in a couple of months' time, which could well act as a proxy.

[i_ateallthepies]

No comments from the Tory apologists I see.

[Not Now Kato]

No comments from the Tory apologists I see.

It's hard for them to argue against a parliamentary committee's own findings....
 
https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/127/public-accounts-committee/news/150988/unimaginable-cost-of-test-trace-failed-to-deliver-central-promise-of-averting-another-lockdown/