The Sunak Government 2022-

[bubbles1966]

Track and Trace is estimated to have prevented two million infections between April 2020-March 2021. The covid waves and pressures would have been more intense and acute for the NHS without it.

As for the care home issue, a 'covid tested' version of the NHS discharge process wouldn't work at the time because PHE couldn't deliver either the scale or speed that was required.

Care homes still had the final say on accepting or declining admissions but the whole system needed industrial scale ramping up of PPE, test capacity. That was never going to happen in a matter of days or weeks.

By the time wave 2 happened, a lot of these problems were addressed, but the cost of gearing up to handle covid was a deterioration in the service for other health issues.

[Samba]

She should be in jail ...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63871448

She's a full-weight c*nt.
I'm certainly never wearing one of her Company's bras again.

[Samba]

Track and Trace is estimated to have prevented two million infections between April 2020-March 2021. The covid waves and pressures would have been more intense and acute for the NHS without it.

Covid-19: NHS Test and Trace made no difference to the pandemic, says report
BMJ 2021; 372 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n663 (Published 10 March 2021)
Cite this as: BMJ 2021;372:n663

'The NHS Test and Trace service in England failed to deliver its central promise to avoid a second national lockdown and there is no clear evidence its “unimaginable” costs have been justified, MPs on an influential committee have concluded.

The damning report from the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee says that NHS Test and Trace must “wean itself off its persistent reliance on consultants and temporary staff.” In early February it was still employing around 2500 consultants at an average daily rate of £1000 (€1167; $1388) with some paid £6624 a day.

Meg Hillier, the committee chair, said, “Despite the unimaginable resources thrown at this project, NHS Test and Trace cannot point to a measurable difference to the progress of the pandemic, and the promise on which this huge expense was justified—avoiding another lockdown—has been broken, twice.”

The service, headed by Dido Harding, was set up in May 2020 with a budget of £22bn and has since been allocated a further £15bn—a total of £37bn over two years.'

As for the care home issue, a 'covid tested' version of the NHS discharge process wouldn't work at the time because PHE couldn't deliver either the scale or speed that was required.

What about the (non-existent) 'protective ring/arm' that Hancock said had been 'placed around care homes'?
So, because PHE couldn't deliver either the scale or speed that was required, the Govt just went ahead & dumped thousands of untested people into care homes.
"Well, who cares about the sort of people living in care homes. They're going to die soon, anyway", appeared to be the mindset.

Care homes still had the final say on accepting or declining admissions but the whole system needed industrial scale ramping up of PPE, test capacity. That was never going to happen in a matter of days or weeks.

Could have & should have put them all into the quickly built 'Nightingale Hospitals', first.
Except they were built just for show & couldn't have been staffed anywhere near properly.

[Tenbury]

.

In the 11bn fraud again as wrong as it is we are probably talking about hundreds of thousands of small frauds. The legal cost and time pursuing those would probably eat up a lot of anything they recoup.

I'm not sure that anyone on benefits (many of whom which are in work) who are overpaid (often through not fault of their own), and then forced to repay through future benefit reduction, would necessarily agree with you.

[SammyLeeWasOffside]

I'm not sure that anyone on benefits (many of whom which are in work) who are overpaid (often through not fault of their own), and then forced to repay through future benefit reduction, would necessarily agree with you.

But that's easy to deal with as they are judge and jury. Proving fraud in many of these cases would involve court.

They also stop the money out of future payments with benefits. Here they would have to assess the likelihood of getting any money back.

If they chuck another 5bn at the court cases and bailiffs etc and recover say 2bn there would be another waste of taxpayer's money story.

[Cornelius Beal]

[bubbles1966]

@ Samba,

Up to 2m infections prevented: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... rt__5_.pdf

What about the (non-existent) 'protective ring/arm' that Hancock said had been 'placed around care homes'? So, because PHE couldn't deliver either the scale or speed that was required, the Govt just went ahead & dumped thousands of untested people into care homes. "Well, who cares about the sort of people living in care homes. They're going to die soon, anyway", appeared to be the mindset.

That's not how it works.

The reality is that the NHS hospital delivery model is for a steady flow of people out of hospitals so that new ones can be accepted. That is predicated on the notion that those who are fit enough, or whose care is no longer appropriate for hospital treatment, are promptly discharged. That's standard NHS practice from well before covid.

If people are being delayed in discharge the whole model hits difficulties.

The consequence of testing is that it lengthens the time to discharge whilst results are awaited, and it also creates the need to set up temporary holding facilities for those found to be positive. These are hospital beds effectively taken from others. By the second wave the NHS was doing that, but Whitty now says that covid response will probably cause a 'prolonged period of excess deaths' from these other illnesses.

I'd hazard a guess that ongoing covid precautions are a factor in the NHS current problems, but the minute the NHS/government signals that they are winding down precautions there will be an entirely predictable barrage of complaint/criticism.

One day, a long while from now when the emotion has subsided, people will look back at the long term data on health outcomes, the state of the health service and the economy and question whether the lockdowns were the right thing to do.

[SammyLeeWasOffside]

Did they supply what they were contracted to?

[YorksHammer]

Did they supply what they were contracted to?

I don't think whether they did or not is the question at heart here though, Sammy - it's the cronyism that sees people who are friends of those in power get directed to go through a special lane to access money from the Government that helps their businesses. The high court has found that the VIP lane itself was unlawful and should not have been used. The very nature of it meant that MPs and ministers were recommending the companies to go into it.

The scandal isn't whether the supply occurred or not. It's the fact that it was so easy for minister's mates to get into that lane if they were already in the Government's inner circle, potentially leaving out companies that didn't have that connection.

It is, once again, a demonstration of the 'them and us' mentality of the Tory Government. Prioritising those that will rub their backs.

[ironsonthebrain]

Nuffield Trust figures

48,213 Covid deaths between mid March and mid June 2020
40% , YES 40% were care home residents.
Care home staff who that t***er Hancock tried to blame were being paid £8.50 per hour, and having to deal with this.
And with only 10% of the PPE they should have been provided with.

[ironsonthebrain]

I don't think whether they did or not is the question at heart here though, Sammy - it's the cronyism that sees people who are friends of those in power get directed to go through a special lane to access money from the Government that helps their businesses. The high court has found that the VIP lane itself was unlawful and should not have been used. The very nature of it meant that MPs and ministers were recommending the companies to go into it.

The scandal isn't whether the supply occurred or not. It's the fact that it was so easy for minister's mates to get into that lane if they were already in the Government's inner circle, potentially leaving out companies that didn't have that connection.

It is, once again, a demonstration of the 'them and us' mentality of the Tory Government. Prioritising those that will rub their backs.

It's an even bigger scandal as I understand it because the PPE they were supposed to supply was found to be unfit for use - and yet they still took the money.
As others have said they should be in jail.

[SammyLeeWasOffside]

The scandal isn't whether the supply occurred or not. It's the fact that it was so easy for minister's mates to get into that lane if they were already in the Government's inner circle, potentially leaving out companies that didn't have that connection.

It is, once again, a demonstration of the 'them and us' mentality of the Tory Government. Prioritising those that will rub their backs.

I kind of agree and disagree. I have no doubt there is corruption and more than a few backhanders and board positions to come.

Where I slightly disagree is in remembering it in context. The utter rush to grab PPE seems to be fading a little from memory. At the time and bereft of options I don't think it's massively out of the ordinary to think 'who do we know'.

I don't know if there were established firms who couldn't sell their wares, I would doubt it tbh, but if the stuff ordered was supplied I don't really see it matters who exactly got rich off it.

[SammyLeeWasOffside]

It's an even bigger scandal as I understand it because the PPE they were supposed to supply was found to be unfit for use - and yet they still took the money.
As others have said they should be in jail.

Govt have been in a legal battle with medpro for a year now.

[Danny's Dyer Acting]

I kind of agree and disagree. I have no doubt there is corruption and more than a few backhanders and board positions to come.

Where I slightly disagree is in remembering it in context. The utter rush to grab PPE seems to be fading a little from memory. At the time and bereft of options I don't think it's massively out of the ordinary to think 'who do we know'.

I don't know if there were established firms who couldn't sell their wares, I would doubt it tbh, but if the stuff ordered was supplied I don't really see it matters who exactly got rich off it.

What if the people supplying it knew the stuff wasn't fit for use? Or had no idea whether it was and said that it was? What if a blind eye was turned to that because of backhanders and board positions coming their way?

What if the county overpaid by multiples because of the backhanders and board positions to come?

The refusal to open all of this up and answer questions honestly stinks.

[bubbles1966]

The utter rush to grab PPE seems to be fading a little from memory. At the time and bereft of options I don't think it's massively out of the ordinary to think 'who do we know'.

I don't know if there were established firms who couldn't sell their wares, I would doubt it tbh, but if the stuff ordered was supplied I don't really see it matters who exactly got rich off it.

Yep.

Whitty was telling the government that a worst case scenario was 820,000 dead.

If they've over-ordered when they've been told that, they've over-ordered.

They were 'following the science' and listening to 'the experts'. These 'experts' gave them these numbers, they told them that they were confident that their contact tracing and testing regime was working fine up to early March 2020, and then they suddenly realised the NHS wasn't giving them accurate, timely data.

The PPE guidance and anticipated ways of treating patients changed regularly. At the start of whole thing they thought they would need thousands and thousands of ventilators. The likes of Matt Hancock aren't making that judgement or giving that advice.

[Cuenca 'ammer]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... nds-office

Revealed: Second firm pushed by Michelle Mone was secret entity of husband’s office

A second company that the Tory peer Michelle Mone lobbied ministers over in an attempt to secure government Covid contracts was a secret entity of her husband’s family office, the Guardian can reveal.

Lady Mone’s lobbying on behalf of the company, LFI Diagnostics, which she tried to help secure government contracts for Covid lateral flow tests, prompted a formal rebuke from a health minister who reminded her of “the need for propriety”.

A departmental source told the Guardian that Mone was “in a class of her own in terms of the sheer aggression of her advocacy” on behalf of LFI Diagnostics.

However, it is the revelation that the company was a secret entity of the office that manages the wealth of her husband, Douglas Barrowman, that will deepen the controversy over the Tory peer and her access to ministers.

[SammyLeeWasOffside]

What if the people supplying it knew the stuff wasn't fit for use? Or had no idea whether it was and said that it was? What if a blind eye was turned to that because of backhanders and board positions coming their way?

What if the county overpaid by multiples because of the backhanders and board positions to come?

The refusal to open all of this up and answer questions honestly stinks.

They are chasing firms that didn't supply as promised. They have been arguing with medpros lawyers for months, u Der 3 different PMs.

[Tenbury]

Sammy, I understand the point you make, but what you're really saying is fraud is only illegal if it 's small scale.

Integrity has become just another commodity.

[York Ham(mer)]

Rishi Sunak is ‘absolutely shocked’ by the Michelle Mone allegations. Shocked, I tell you!

[YGNB]

Rishi Sunak is ‘absolutely shocked’ by the Michelle Mone allegations. Shocked, I tell you!

He's shocked quite a lot isn't he? Shocked at Gavin Williamsons bullying, shocked at Dominic Raabs bullying and shocked at blatant corruption that occurred whilst *checks notes* he was the chancellor