Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
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The government has created an opaque and unmanageable hybrid system of public and private provision, in which favoured corporations have received vast contracts without competition, advertising or even penalty clauses. Public health, reorganised in the midst of the pandemic to give even greater control to Harding and her chums, is in semi-privatised meltdown.
But that isn’t even the half of it. I’ve been talking to someone working on test and trace in a call centre subcontracted to Serco. I’ve confirmed their identity and job, but to protect their position, the worker wants to remain anonymous. Here’s what this person told me.
Until last week, the workers at the call centre were doing the simplest job in the tracing chain, calling those who have been identified as contacts of infected people and telling them to isolate themselves for 14 days, giving them some scripted advice and collecting a small amount of data. But last week, the call centre announced that all the workers on this contract were being “upskilled”. Instead of making these simple calls, they would now be calling infected patients and discovering all their contacts over the past fortnight. To use the official terms, they have suddenly been promoted from level 3 call handlers to level 2 clinical contact caseworkers.
In its advertisements for this job, the NHS explains applicants must be at Clinician Band 6 level, who will be working as part of a team of “experienced clinicians”. You must have a health or science degree or “demonstrable equivalent experience or qualifications”; experience in “a field related to public health or health and social care services as a practitioner” and “registration with the relevant professional body”. Among your tasks are “conducting a public health risk assessment”, “providing public health advice” and “using your clinical knowledge to help escalate complex cases”. Anyone accepted for this role would be “provided with appropriate training”.
www.theguardian.com
" When I asked Serco to explain the decision to turn level 3 call centre workers into skilled contact tracers, it told me the instruction came from the government, so I should address my questions to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). The department confirmed that it had made the decision. "
Disgusting state of affairs
The government has created an opaque and unmanageable hybrid system of public and private provision, in which favoured corporations have received vast contracts without competition, advertising or even penalty clauses. Public health, reorganised in the midst of the pandemic to give even greater control to Harding and her chums, is in semi-privatised meltdown.
But that isn’t even the half of it. I’ve been talking to someone working on test and trace in a call centre subcontracted to Serco. I’ve confirmed their identity and job, but to protect their position, the worker wants to remain anonymous. Here’s what this person told me.
Until last week, the workers at the call centre were doing the simplest job in the tracing chain, calling those who have been identified as contacts of infected people and telling them to isolate themselves for 14 days, giving them some scripted advice and collecting a small amount of data. But last week, the call centre announced that all the workers on this contract were being “upskilled”. Instead of making these simple calls, they would now be calling infected patients and discovering all their contacts over the past fortnight. To use the official terms, they have suddenly been promoted from level 3 call handlers to level 2 clinical contact caseworkers.
In its advertisements for this job, the NHS explains applicants must be at Clinician Band 6 level, who will be working as part of a team of “experienced clinicians”. You must have a health or science degree or “demonstrable equivalent experience or qualifications”; experience in “a field related to public health or health and social care services as a practitioner” and “registration with the relevant professional body”. Among your tasks are “conducting a public health risk assessment”, “providing public health advice” and “using your clinical knowledge to help escalate complex cases”. Anyone accepted for this role would be “provided with appropriate training”.
How teenagers ended up operating crucial parts of England’s test and trace system | George Monbiot
As one whistleblower tells me, a vital public health service is being bungled by private contractors, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
www.theguardian.com
" When I asked Serco to explain the decision to turn level 3 call centre workers into skilled contact tracers, it told me the instruction came from the government, so I should address my questions to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). The department confirmed that it had made the decision. "
Disgusting state of affairs
