Still gets in my throat how its NHS Track and Trace when it clearly isn't but the vaccination process is never referred to as NHS vaccination programme. For me it's a clear indication of where this govt intends to go with the health service - trying to distance private enterprise from the fuck ups but make sure the state provider is intrinsically linked but not giving it the due credit it deserves for arguably the one thing that has gone well.
I think that’s a little overly conspiratorial (is that a word ?!) SBD. The vaccine programme is clearly linked to the NHS and we all know GP practices are currently delivering a lion share of the doses as with flu jab every year. like everything though, there are various others involved in its successful rollout....logistically assistance was provided by the army and there’s been thousands/tens of thousands of public volunteers. One of the main reasons we have been able roll out at pace was due to procurement and Kate Bingham being in charge of it, which many in the media moaned was cronyism at the time (even though she did it for free). Compare that to PPE procurement which was shambolic albeit during unprecedented times. Finally the bold move by PHE/JVCI/government to roll out single doses to give at least provide partial protection appears (currently - don’t worry NW, I’m not getting ahead of myself ) to have been a sensible decision....hopefully it remains that way
Test and trace bizarrely keeps getting brought up as this big failure when in actual it’s not at all. Initial tracing wasn’t good (and money wasted) but has since improved significantly. With hindsight it would’ve been better to have a central hub and then regional teams but either way significant resource/private sector assistance would’ve been required.
It’s the testing side of things which is where the billions go and its pretty impressive - daily capacity of 800k+ (87m in total) 90%+ turnaround in 24 hours, one of the best (if not the best) genomic sequencing in the world, which is now allowing us to spot variants and deploy surge asymptomatic testing in areas.
Both are decent examples of private and public sector working well in tandem