Primary care 'obvious blind spot' in NHS (England) Test and Trace programme, GPs warn

[Northerner]

The government's failure to involve primary care in COVID-19 testing is 'baffling' and represents an 'obvious blind spot' in the NHS Test and Trace programme, GPs have warned.

GPs told GPonline it makes no sense that staff at hot hubs are unable to swab symptomatic patients - and warned that the accuracy of the current system is undermined by reliance on patients self-presenting to test centres, often far from where they live.

At present GPs are unable to swab patients or directly book them in for tests even if they suspect a person has coronavirus - patients must request the tests themselves through an NHS website.

GPs say being unable to test patients for the virus has left them operating with ‘one hand behind our back’ - and argue that a lack of testing is making it more difficult to identify other illnesses.

Primary care 'obvious blind spot' in NHS Test and Trace programme, GPs warn

The government's failure to involve primary care in COVID-19 testing is 'baffling' and represents an 'obvious blind spot' in the NHS Test and Trace programme, GPs have warned.

www.gponline.com

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It seems that with this government they either want to centralise things, or outsource them to private companies It's idealogical, not practical

 

[Bruce Stephens]

It seems that with this government they either want to centralise things, or outsource them to private companies

Mostly both at the same time, of course. (And yes, it surely must be ideology maybe mixed in with experience: they've been doing this for years and it's what they know how to do.)

 

[Northerner]

mixed in with experience

Or, 'mixed with inexperience' - they have no idea how to work with the public sector, at a time when it is absolutely essential to be able to do so Most of the cabinet have very little actual experience of government, most of them have been sacked/resigned shortly after getting office (Raab, Patel, Hancock was a junior minister, Williamson etc.)

One of the reasons for much of the problems has been due to the fact that the 'team' at number 10 are experienced in campaigning, so are being guided by the wrong metrics when making decisions i.e. focus groups, polls etc.

 

[Eddy Edson]

At present GPs are unable to swab patients or directly book them in for tests even if they suspect a person has coronavirus - patients must request the tests themselves through an NHS website.

WTF??

 

[Bruce Stephens]

WTF??

Quite. Theoretically GPs ought to receive the results (since we all have a unique NHS number specifically designed for this kind of thing) but in reality they aren't getting them. (People give information which ought to provide enough information to find who they are but for whatever reason that doesn't seem to be reliably determining their NHS number.)

(I'm sure everyone involved is trying to do the best job they can, but those at the top are hiding it really well.)