Serco has won an additional £45m to provide COVID test centres, openDemocracy has reported. The deal has not been made public, but provides a major additional role for the controversial … Read more
Serco
The Guardian reports that the privately-run laboratories that analyse swabs from people in the community, including care homes, were stretched to capacity even in late August, and were unable to … Read more
The FT reports that Serco has won the most Covid-related government contracts among UK-listed outsourcers. The research by the data provider Tussell shows that the large outsourcing groups, including Serco, … Read more
The Doctors’ Association has criticised the coronavirus testing system as “an utter shambles” after collecting a dossier of cases where the system has led to long journeys and considerable waits … Read more
The UK’s test-and-trace system for coronavirus has a backlog of nearly 200,000 swabs, resulting in samples being sent to laboratories in Italy and Germany as the Government’s privately run system struggles … Read more
The private sector has been the winner in the Government’s response to COVID-19 in England – but why, given the growing and predictable litany of mistakes it has made? A … Read more
The Guardian reports that contract tracers hired to work on England’s test-and-trace system report that they are making only a handful of calls every month and are occupying their time with barbecues … Read more
Allyson Pollock, clinical professor of public health at Newcastle University and author of NHS plc: the Privatisation of Our Health Care, discusses why the government’s test, track and trace system, … Read more
What links a network of rapidly-converted field hospitals, a family run food and beverages company in Antrim, a network of “super-labs”, and Serco? The final name has probably given it … Read more
HSJ has revealed that King’s College Hospital FT and Guy’s and St Thomas’ FT will pay an undisclosed sum to Serco for its share of Viapath, the firm they co-own. … Read more
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to keep pace with the rapid changes and abrupt U-turns in government policy on how to deal with the Covid-19 crisis. The past fortnight has seen … Read more
The Observer reports that Serco was fined more than £1 million for failures on a government contract a few months ago, but was still awarded a lucrative government contract for … Read more
The easing of the lockdown and a safe return to school for hundreds of children and their teachers is dependent on an effective test, track and trace programme. Over the … Read more
Serco has apologised after accidentally sharing the email addresses of almost 300 contact tracers. The company has been employed by the government to recruit staff as contact tracers for cases … Read more
Out of sight of public scrutiny, dozens of private companies have been awarded contracts to carry out work for the NHS, much of which could have been carried out by … Read more
The Guardian reports that doctors, campaign groups, academics and MPs have raised concerns that the government is using the coronavirus pandemic to transfer key public health duties from the NHS and other … Read more
Urgent care covers the NHS 111 services, walk-in centres and out-of-hours (OOH) GP services. There have been a number of failures with contracts awarded to private providers. Most recently, the … Read more
One of the most serious affects of outsourcing in the NHS that has been observed is a decline in the quality and safety of care. Quality and safety are linked … Read more
The NHS has had contracts with private hospitals to carry out elective surgery for many years and patients were able to choose a private hospital under the choose-and-book system. Successive … Read more
A hospital trust which is £135million in debt has sparked fury by handing a whopping £600million contract to Serco. Debt-ridden Barts Health NHS Trust is already in Financial Special Measures … Read more
