Daily Insight: The test and trace tally

Test and Trace – not actually part of the NHS, despite its branding – attracted its fair share of criticism in the past few years over its reliance on management consultants.

Now the UK Health Security Agency, the successor to the now defunct Public Health England, has revealed the total bill for external expertise in the pandemic ran past £450m.

UKHSA CEO Dame Jenny Harries revealed the figures in a letter to the Commons public accounts committee, which has previously asked for details on how the public health watchdog would “reduce its dependency on consultants”. Dame Jenny told MPs that the organisation was committed to bringing down external support to an “absolute minimum”.

Numbers have fallen substantially from the high point of Test and Trace’s largesse in early 2021, when it was spending £34m a month on consultancy.

But the news that UKHSA is continuing to pay consultants daily rates of nearly £3,000 comes at a time when the organisation is carrying out a “rapid review” of staffing levels, amid fears it could cut up to 40 per cent of its jobs – and when the wider NHS is under increasing pressure to rein in its own spending.

12-hour waits balloon

Mental health patients in crisis are increasingly facing “outrageous” long waits, an HSJ investigation has found, with some waiting days in emergency departments.

Waits in accident and emergency of more than 12 hours have ballooned since pre-covid, with a lack of mental health beds and social care access cited as major contributing factors.

People in crisis have previously struggled to access timely care in A&Es but HSJ’s research suggests waits are now two-and-a-half times as high as pre-covid levels.

HSJ obtained data from 13 trusts of varying sizes across the country and found 600 cases of people waiting over 12 hours in EDs, during the first few months of 2022. If that continues on the same trajectory it would reach 1,800 by the end of the year.

It lays bare a rapidly worsening trend which the Royal College of Psychiatrists described as “unacceptable” and Royal College of Emergency Medicine said was “not parity” with physical health.

The situation has only been made worse by the pandemic, which has seen record numbers of people seeking mental health support. NHS England said demand has piled intense pressure on EDs while efforts are being made to bolster early interventions in crisis teams.