Private Eye - Test And Trace

[Hymie]

After picking my jaw from the floor after reading this, I have to admit that besides my trusty Nokia 3310 I have a Huawei smart phone (android) which is around a year old.

After spending an hour or so downloading the NHS track & trace app. I go a message that it is not compatible with the phone (and so cannot run).
If I had spent £24 billion on a test & trace system that did not work on a one year old phone – I’d want my money back.

‘Number Crunching
£24bn Estimated cost of Test and Trace system to date’

For that amount you could build around half the high speed rail line from London to Birmingham (based on the original estimate)

[douglas9401]

And one as useful as the other.

[Buenchico]

Donald Trump's trade ban prevents the NHS Covid app from working on Huawei phones released since mid-2019:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-54644994

[10ClarionSt]

Why would you want a Test & Trace app?

[DTCwordfan]

Did I read that there's a merger of the two systems now being discussed, 'Track and Trace' ??? Probably true for both.....

[jno]

are you sure that's billion and not million?

[Peter Pedant]

agree kno
that is 5000 per person in the UK

[Peter Pedant]

google it
around ten billion

[Prudie]

That's good news for me, I don't want to download it but work would quite like us to. I have a Huawei phone and now I have a legitimate excuse.

[youngmafbog]

Well its worth it to keep the Covid worshipers happy.

[bobbinwales]

Will be several billions not millions for sure. If it includes the test costs then its not a suprise figure to me. Tens of millions of tests must of been done since March and tens of thousand's of contact tracers have been recruited. The app must also of cost alot

[youngmafbog]

Just get on with your lockdown in Wales.

[jno]

so who's estimating the Eye's figure, PP?

Looks like HS2 wouldn't get much beyond Old Oak Common for that money.

[bobbinwales]

R u on the wrong post youngmadbog? This one is about test & trace it isnt about are firebrake in Walea.

[Sunk]

Google/Apple did all the work to make building an app very straight forward and easy.
But it took the Consortium of companies a hell of along time to get the app onto the public’s phones.
It was also very expensive compared to other countries. The contract was awarded without any competitive tending tendering and went to chums of Dominic Cummings.
I sure all this will be looked at in subsequent years, and whether we got value for money, or not.

[bobbinwales]

Your probly right sunk that the app could of been done better . But a dont think the high cost of test n track n trace as much to do with the new app, the main cost off it must of been the testing over
6 months .

[THECORBYLOON]

The Private Eye website says £12 billion, not £24 billion.

That ties in with the figure of £10 billion set aside for the project in June.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/coronavirus-test-and-trace-system-england-government-budget-a9608656.html%3famp

[jno]

thanks, TCL, I've just checked with the Eye and £12bn it is; the other £12bn was wasted on a completely different project.

[bobbinwales]

Yeah, that other 12 billion was under a Labour goverment on IT projecs so it just show's any one can quite easilly waste other peopels money

C&P from From PrivateEye

//£12bn. Cost of NHS National Programme for IT (2004-10), described by a leading public accounts committee member as ‘one of the worst scandals in terms of a waste of public money//

[bobbinwales]

Good article here on some off the problem's with the test & trace in England. A wonder if same the problems are happning in rest of UK, maybe we just dont get picked up on it asmuch.
Lets see if this link works
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/13/what-has-gone-wrong-with-englands-covid-test-and-trace-system
Several problems are mentioned, including tho not enough peopel co-operate ( we probaly all seen peopel give wrong mobile number's or make there name illegable), so yes its not gone aswell as it could of but not all the faults are due to Matt Hancock and Dido Harding?

[dannyk13]

YMB //Well its worth it to keep the Covid worshipers happy.//
I doubt that anyone actually worships Covid 19.