DIdo Harding’s Crystal ball

[GrumblyMumblyisnotJumbly]

Should we start crowd funding for a new crystal ball for Dido Harding? As the one she’s been using is rubbish.

No-one predicted the increased demand for testing in September when schools and Universities returned she says. And when the select committee ask when the next surge for increased testing is anticipated Dido, head of NHS Test and Trace, says it’s not her job to know.

Looking in my crystal ball I forecast that test and trace won’t be improving as fast as necessary while she’s at the helm.

[wildbarnet]

She needs to go ... honestly the woman is an idiot

[Olmec8]

I'd suggest Christmas when everyone breaks the rules and gets tipsy.

[Redolent]

She’s an absolute fucking disaster. Also a demonstration of how this Tory party is so cavalier with public money whenever it suits it (dishing out of lucrative contracts to its cronies with no competitive tender process).

[GrumblyMumblyisnotJumbly]

Apparently project moonshot is 3 x the policing budget!! We are going to be paying for this for the rest of our lifetimes which would be fine if a) it actually worked b) was an investment in systems which could be used in the future. It’s not. Our money is being fed to SERCO /Deloitte etc and their performance is poor.

[whatisgoingtohappen]

She gives me the rage.

Over 500 people died in the past 24 hours .

[GrumblyMumblyisnotJumbly]

Where there have been improvements in actual tracing rates it’s been achieved through local tracing teams from councils etc who are used to working within communities. They should redirect money from Serco to the councils.

[CharityPecksniff]

Love the title of this post!

Shame it's not a laughing matter though. The money that's been handed to Dido is scandalous.

[GrumblyMumblyisnotJumbly]

@CharityPecksniff the title is down to Dido’s response to the select committee yesterday when they questioned her on when demand could increase again:

Baroness Harding said: ’Armed only with my crystal ball, all of us around are working so hard with experts in science, in medicine, in behavioural science to understand what may happen as we go forward.'

[Reedwarbler]

She's the classic example of it's not what you know but who you know. She has also presided catastrophically over EE and Thomas Cook.

[TheCountessofFitzdotterel]

She’s without shame. No wonder she gets on with Boris.

[GrumblyMumblyisnotJumbly]

The expenditure on Dido's 'cherry on the cake' app alone is £11.8billion

www.digitalhealth.net/2020/06/nhs-contact-tracing-app-cost/

Expenditure on Irish tracing app (which was launched earlier) €850,000 (£773,000)

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/20/cheap-popular-and-it-works-irelands-contact-tracing-app-success

Even when spending a fortune the damn thing still doesn't work properly:
www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1354783/coronavirus-news-nhs-test-and-trace-app-working-covid19-england-lockdown

Is that really value for money?

[TheCountessofFitzdotterel]

No it isn’t. The billions figure includes the cost of the actual tests. We’re not comparing like with like.

[TheCountessofFitzdotterel]

I’m no Dido fan and I utterly abhor this corrupt and inefficient business of giving jobs to mates but there are some very dubious figures being thrown around.

[SisyphusDad]

Her crystal ball is working perfectly. It points her from money pot to money pot with 100% accuracy.

[GrumblyMumblyisnotJumbly]

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel my mistake I did a typo it was million not billion

'The NHS contact-tracing app has so far cost £11.8million, it has been revealed in the House of Lords.

During a sitting on June 22, Lord Bethell, the parliamentary under-secretary of state for innovation, was asked how much the app had cost the taxpayer.

“The cost to date has been £11.8million,” he told the House of Lords.

I assume we can take his word for it?

He's also invloved in Randox (remember them from the faulty recalled test kits in the summer) being awarded an extended contract (reportedly for £347m) with no other companies invited to bid.

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/04/tory-linked-firm-involved-in-testing-failure-awarded-new-347m-covid-contract

[TheCountessofFitzdotterel]

Thanks Grumbly. I had wondered if you were quoting from the tweet discussed at the start of this Unherd article but obviously you have a better source

[starsinyourpies]

@Reedwarbler she also ran Sainsbury's online when it was a total shambles then jumped ship before improving anything.

[Fluffycloudland77]

I was working with nurses talking about the second wave before the first wave was over.

[GrumblyMumblyisnotJumbly]

More testing failures announced, this time in IT (reminiscent of the Sept spike caused by the excel spreadsheet that had reached capacity & meant people were not informed of results):
Data released by NHS test and trace shows the length of time taken to reach potentially infectious people hit itsworst weekduring the period of the computer errors. Only 43.6% of close contacts were reached by the system within 24 hours in the week to 21 October, compared with 67% the following week. However, it is not known whether the IT failure contributed to these delays'

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/12/englands-test-and-trace-system-hit-by-huge-it-problems-last-month

My DH tried the test &trace app on his iPhone this morning and its just a frozen screen, it doesn't even open!

Apparently Major,Blair,Brown and Cameron all wrote to Johnson in July emphasising the crucial part testing would play in an effective response. The Government keep telling us how big the capacity is but its no good if they fail in getting results to people or contact tracing takes takes too long / doesn't reach people. Harding should be answerable about strategy going forward and this should not just be pouring more taxpayers money to companies that fail to deliver an effective testing service.

As a pp suggests Christmas (including more international travel) and then school/ University returns in Jan will create another surge - you can put that in your crystal ball Dido!

[BaitandSwitch]

Is Dido Harding the new Chris Grayling?

[GrumblyMumblyisnotJumbly]

Well her crystal ball didn't spot that one coming either:
www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/18/test-and-trace-chief-dido-harding-goes-into-covid-self-isolation

I'd be in hiding in isolation too if I was presiding over the shambles that is track and trace:

1 in 8 cases were being recorded in the wrong location in Sept / Oct as test and trace were using students home addresses rather than where they were living! I saw an item on the news yesterday that Reading University have implemented their own local tracing system for students and staff which has 100% success.

The city of York have launched their own contact tracing service launching in October- on Wednesday 28 October, the local service reached 100% of people that the national system were unable to reach.

www.lgcplus.com/politics/coronavirus/exclusive-local-contact-tracing-roll-out-gathers-pace-despite-lack-of-funding-02-10-2020/

Yet still the 'Not Really' NHS Track and Trace lurches from disaster to disaster, is profiting private companies and failing to make the most effective interventions.