The Times reports that former Conservative councillor, Steve Dechan, received a £120 million government contract for face shields whose quality is so doubtful that fewer than 1 in 400 have … Read more
The Guardian has seen internal emails that suggest the government gave “VIP treatment” to a firm offering Covid testing facilities which had entered the system “informally” because Matt Hancock was “a good … Read more
Firms are being invited to bid to run 150 new community diagnostic facilities as part of £10bn NHS framework contract which has been advertised by NHS England. Planning for these new facilities … Read more
The Australian private hospital chain Ramsay has increased its offer to buy the UK company Spire Healthcare. The takeover will mean Ramsay will merge Spire’s 47 hospitals with Ramsay’s 40 … Read more
Serco has been awarded a new contract worth up to £322 million to continue running Covid-19 testing sites for another year. The company now runs 20% of centres in England and … Read more
The Guardian reports that Matt Hancock’s use of private emails that bypassed disclosure rules when doing government business have come under scrutiny, as exchanges emerged showing the former health secretary … Read more
A report from the National Audit Office has found that almost 600m lateral flow tests given to the public in England may not yet have been used and that the … Read more
Byline Times reports that the Government’s COVID-19 ‘Test and Trace’ system, run by Baroness Dido Harding, has broken a commitment to MPs by bolstering its ranks with more private sector … Read more
Two contracts for contact tracers with Serco and Sitel have been extended by six months by the Department of Health and Social Care for an additional cost of £168m. Serco … Read more
A total, constipated silence from the NHS and ministers shrouds the long-delayed new “mega lab” that was supposed to have opened in Leamington Spa last January as part of the … Read more
Unlike the widely touted (and now delayed) date for lifting all remaining lockdown restrictions, the deadline for patients to opt-out of a scheme to create an unprecedented central database of … Read more
A judge has ruled that Michael Gove acted unlawfully when the government awarded a contract without a tender to a polling company owned by long-term associates of his and Dominic Cummings, … Read more
NHS dentistry is facing a “twin crisis of access and affordability”, according to the watchdog Healthwatch England, which means in reality for many people NHS dentistry no longer exists. The … Read more
The concerns of campaigners that the proposals in the NHS White Paper to give statutory powers to “Integrated Care Systems” would lead to private companies sitting on ICS Boards have been proved justified. Virgin … Read more
A report by a local council in the North East of England has found that failures in England’s Test and Trace system are partly responsible for a surge in the … Read more
The National Audit Office (NAO) has been blocked by the government from revealing the names of companies that were directed to a ‘VIP lane’ to win lucrative COVID contracts. The … Read more
A court has heard that ministers “lobbied” officials to chase the progress of contracts for the supply of personal protective equipment that were being processed through a government “VIP lane” … Read more
The High Court has heard how the NatWest suspended Matt Hancock’s team from making payments to PPE suppliers at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic over fears they were being … Read more
The Independent has learnt that at a “critical juncture” in the pandemic, thousands of clinical staff working on contact tracing for the government’s test and trace service will be axed. The … Read more
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has paid out more than £38 million after reneging on a pre-contract arrangement with a provider of COVID-19 testing services. An NHS … Read more
