NHS Test and Trace App

[SydneyRover]

I must admit that I was one of many pointing the bone at them in the early days of the pandemic for suspending the T&T operation as I didn't understand at the time that when contacts get over a certain number the system just cannot cope with the volume .............. but if the system is not functioning correctly it's operating as squelch in a feedback loop and the numbers get out of control so much more rapidly, I agree bst that's when the system needed an overhaul.

[Donnywolf]

sounds like the callers have target quantities of calls rather than quality outcomes

I suupose this is why lots of the people I used to watch on News Prods were advocating - indeed still are doing this work locally because for years Health Centres and local Practices and in some cases Hospitals have their finger on the pulse

My regular blood tests are coordinated by DRI Trust and have worked fine for 20 ish years. At the start of this virus they opened a test place at Keepmoat and its staying there till March 21 at the very least. They oversee other contageuos disease programmes when they occur - and oversee STD "outbreaks"

They know lots of the people involved and they "know" the local clientele and their habits and seem to my naked and unpolitical eye to be as ideal a choice as the Govt could have chosen. Sure they could have been under big pressure as cases increased and a few areas might have buckled under that pressure and have to be shored uo / helped out but they would have been local failings rather than what looks like a nationwide "mess"

Worse still the experts say it has cost 12 Bl pounds to produce this mess and worse still the Govt are now paying yet more on top and giving local councils unitary authorities etc even more money to run things locally

[wilts rover]

The Serco Test & Trace system has a larger annual budget than the NASA project to send a manned mission to the moon in 2024.

https://twitter.com/TomKibasi/status/1319346312018538498

[BillyStubbsTears]

The Serco App buzzed me this morning that there was new information. So I hit the notification and it told me, "The COVID alert level in your area has changed."

I live in Sheffield. Nothing has changed for a week.

This is a shambles.

[DonnyOsmond]

The Serco App buzzed me this morning that there was new information. So I hit the notification and it told me, "The COVID alert level in your area has changed."

I live in Sheffield. Nothing has changed for a week.

This is a shambles.

Do you have a post code that splits over two counties? I had the alert yesterday as DN11 is in South Yorks and Nottinghamshire. The app was saying Very High and High until yesterday, now it just says Very High.

[drfchound]

Maybe not a shambles then.

[BillyStubbsTears]

No DO, I don't.

[BillyStubbsTears]

What I'm guessing has happened is this.

Our postcode area is adjacent to High Peak, but doesn't include any of High Peak.

High Peak went from Tier 1 to Tier 2 at midnight.

The app is saying our postcode area includes areas in COVID Tiers 2 and 3.

Their database is clearly mixing our postcode with the High Peak area.

But I've only figured that out from digging around myself.

[BillyStubbsTears]

This isn't just a pointless moan by the way. It is important.

I've woken this morning to a message saying my area has regions in both Tier 2 and Tier 3.


It DOESN'T.

It is entirely in Tier 3.

I've figured out where the error is, but as most on here would appreciate, I'm an obsessive.

What about people who get that notification and think "Oh! They'd said we were in Tier 3 before. Must be getting better" and leave it at that.

Communication, clear, crisp, correct, consistent communication is absolutely vital. Getting this type of info right is entry-level stuff.

[turnbull for england]

Same for us , Neighbouring DN postcodes  in another borough have increased level. But to further prove your point a lady posted on towns Facebook page about 9 am that she had woken to see we are now in highest tier , so people should take extra precautions ,  things are just not getting across clearly

[albie]

In the Sunday Times today.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/software-bungle-meant-nhs-covid-app-failed-to-warn-users-to-self-isolate-6tzstqnr9

Software bungle meant NHS Covid app failed to warn users to self-isolate
Tom Calver and Gabriel Pogrund
Sunday November 01 2020, 12.01am GMT, The Sunday Times
The contact-tracing app has suffered problems since its launch

The “world-beating” NHS Covid app, downloaded by 19 million people, has systematically failed to send alerts telling people to self-isolate after they came into contact with infected people.

Thousands were not contacted by the Test and Trace app, developed under Baroness (Dido) Harding, because it was set at the wrong sensitivity, the government has admitted.

For a month, the Department of Health and Social Care failed to use software developed to make the app work properly. Users whose “risk score” should have triggered an alert were not contacted. As a result, a government source said, “shockingly low” numbers of users had been sent warnings since the app was released on September 24.
Dido Harding heads the NHS test and trace service

The source added that people who owned Android devices were among the worst hit. The mobile operating system accounts for more than half of UK phone users and is also disproportionately used by the less well-off, who are most at risk from the virus.

It took officials five weeks to fix the problem and make a voluntary software update available last Thursday.

The latest disclosure may explain why government scientific advisers on Sage recently warned that the £12bn test and trace system, of which the app is an integral part, has had only a “marginal” impact on Covid-19 transmission.

Last week, developers admitted the error in a blog post, which explained that software engineers had created more effective technology ahead of the app’s national launch, meaning it could have been upgraded from the version tested in the Isle of Wight.

“The ‘risk threshold’ was due to be lowered,” wrote Randeep Sidhu and Gaby Appleton, who are leading figures behind the app. However, they continued, “this change did not take place at that time”.

Although 19 million people use the app, officials have refused to say how many people have been told to isolate through it.

In contrast, Scotland and Northern Ireland have made data for their systems available, with the devolved administrations’ apps contacting 10,000 and 16,000 respectively.

Matt Hancock, the health secretary, has previously hailed the app as “an important step forward in our fight against this invisible killer”.

The app has suffered from problems since its launch. An urgent fix was needed two days after the national roll-out when it emerged that 61,000 NHS tests could not be linked to it.

Last month, the app was updated to stop users from receiving “phantom” alerts telling them they had had a “possible Covid-19 exposure” but without any follow-up.

Professor Muttukrishnan Rajarajan, director of the cyber-security institute at City University in London, said that “lowering” the risk benchmark for notifying users should make the app more effective.

Unlike people reached by a contact tracer, those on lower incomes who are told to stay at home by the app do not get a £500 payment.

A health department spokesman said: “The NHS Covid-19 app is the only app in the world using the latest Google/Apple technology to better gauge distance to identify those most at risk, and is deemed ‘excellent’ by international standards.”