DAUK in the mirror: Serco to make £165m profit after being paid to operate ‘shambolic’ test and trace

Outsourcing firm Serco has announced its profits are set to soar after being paid to operate NHS Test and Trace. The company announced that extra cash could be funnelled to shareholders in the week the performance of the part-privatised contact tracing system hit a new low. Campaigners have labelled the profit alert “obscene” while a group of independent scientists have called for the contact tracing system to be “dismantled”.

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DAUK in BMJ: Covid-19: Delays in getting tests are keeping doctors from work, health leaders war

A survey of 750 doctors by lobby group Doctors Association UK (DAUK) revealed “hundreds” of doctors could not access tests. Three quarters who needed tests were not able to get them, which DAUK president Samantha Batt-Rawden called a “disgrace.”

It cited examples of a Gloucester GP who had to self-isolate for 6 days before a slot was available nearly 200 miles away in Norwich. Another doctor spoke of the only option being “an appointment in 90 minutes. It is a 419 mile journey to get there and takes seven hours.”

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DAUK on Doctors.net

Doctors’ Association president Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden said: “It is a disgrace that NHS staff and patients are being forced to drive hundreds of miles to access a test whilst unwell if one is available to them at all. For frontline NHS staff preparing for a second wave this feels like Groundhog Day. The same problems we were having accessing testing in March appear to be repeating themselves. It seems that we are heading into a second peak having not learned lessons from the first.”

GP Dr Vinesh Patel said: “Natural winter demands, increasing numbers of Coronavirus cases, the critical need to restart normal services and reduced staff numbers will lead to the collapse of Primary Care when it is again most needed. The inevitable consequence is reduced GP appointments; forcing many patients to attend A & E inappropriately or worse not seek help when required.

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