Wed 1 Jul 2020, 03:49 AM | Posted by editor
LETTER from Mark Langabeer, Newton Abbot Labour member
The editor of the British Medical Journal, Dr Fiona Godlee, predicted on Panorama last week that the shambolic lifting of the lockdown was going result in a rise in infections in many areas and her prediction appears to have been correct, as we see in Leicester. In that programme, reporter Richard Bilton investigated the government’s claim that we have a ‘world beating’ test, track and trace system in which it is claimed over 200,000 tests are done daily and 20,000 contact tracers are employed.
But Chris Hopson, the head of NHS Providers argued that it’s not just a case of numbers, but who is having regular tests. The government set up drive-in centres, run by the private sector and the numbers are recorded by the accountancy firm, Deloitte. Many of the test results have failed and even the successful ones are not shared with hospitals, GPs and other health providers. Dr Tom Lewis, a consultant microbiologist, stated bluntly that the failure to transfer data will cost lives.
Bilton also interviewed Professor Sir Chris Ham, former Director of Strategy at the Department of Health, who believed that the involvement of the private sector was an error and that the system could and should have been run by existing health care professionals and local government. Bilton then travelled to Germany where the test centres are overseen by doctors and tests conducted by medical students. Britain could clearly learn a lot from Germany, because they have a larger population but have a death rate that is a fifth of that of the UK.
The problem with Covid, is that people can be infected before symptoms emerge. There was an outbreak in Weston Super Mare, for example, thought to be caused by hospital staff who hadn’t been tested. Hopson worries that there’s still no time line for when all health care staff will tested within 24 hours. Ham believed that there have been avoidable deaths as a result of the government’s testing failures.
Dr Rainer Shwertz , the head of public health in the town of Rhein Neiker in Germany, described contact tracing as like ‘detective’ work and it has saved lives. But the British government’s app that that was due to be in operation by June 1st has been shelved and the 20,000 staff employed to contact those that have been tested with the virus have had little or no contact work to do. Most of the 15,000 people who have been contacted have been by health care providers.
Boris Johnson claims that the government’s response to coronavirus has been a success, but Britain has a higher death rate than any nation in Europe and the highest per capita in the G7. As each day passes, the demand for an early general election will get a bigger audience. The Tories’ only interest is serving the needs of their big business friends. Labour’s Leadership must stand at the head of a movement to drive out this Tory Government.
