And so it goes on ... a failure in Test and Trace.

This time last year we were doing around 2k tests a day They are now processing in excess of 650,000 test a day. Now taking into account human error and the odd computer cock up you are bound to get mistakes
We have a genome sequencing which is probably the best in the world
We also have an amazing vaccine roll out
So yes there may be errors

I don't disagree that wonderful things are being done but Serco Test and Trace has had questions to answer from the beginning.

I also object to the attempts that were made to blame people in the high level areas for so-called vaccine hesitancy which, it turns out, was just one more deflection. If they had this information locally without any delay they may not have got ill in the first place.

This has left the local authorities with one hand tied behind their backs add to that all the mixed messages about travel and we are open to another dreadful surge.

Not everyone is honest about their contacts unfortunately. I think the waste water testing is a very interesting and accurate measure.

Agree if mistakes have been made these should be investigated and practice should be amended so it is less likely to happen again
I suppose it really depends was it human error or a technical glitch

Either way, why did it take so long for it to become public knowledge?

Maybee this was quite recent and I can bet most of the public unless they are involved couldn’t give a toss

What about the people that have caught covid because of it? Does that not bother you?

I received the results of my Covid test done in hospital on the 6th Jan, 2 weeks ago...... on the 7th May!!!! There was also an email for my deceased husbnd, with his results, his test was on the 4th Jan and sadly he died on the 8th!!!!

Of course it does but nothing is infallible and you will get those that even though they have been told that they have been in contact with a positive case will not change or isolate

Aveline

Not everyone is honest about their contacts unfortunately. I think the waste water testing is a very interesting and accurate measure.

It's facinating isn't it Aveline.

travelsafar

I received the results of my Covid test done in hospital on the 6th Jan, 2 weeks ago...... on the 7th May!!!! There was also an email for my deceased husbnd, with his results, his test was on the 4th Jan and sadly he died on the 8th!!!!

Oh travelsafar I am so sorry to hear that.

rosie1959

Of course it does but nothing is infallible and you will get those that even though they have been told that they have been in contact with a positive case will not change or isolate

Nobody expects infallibility but, particularly for the money they are spending on the Sirco Test and Trace, you would think efficiency would be a priority.

The article went on to say:

NHS Test and Trace - for which £37bn has been set aside - identifies people who have been in close contact with someone who has caught Covid.

Between 21 April and 11 May, the system only provided details of a limited number of positive cases of coronavirus to the eight local authorities.

On 11 May, they were told by the Department of Health and Social Care that, over that period, 734 positive tests had not been reported.

According to a report by officials at one of the councils affected, the central test-and-trace system failed to notify its staff of cases, meaning their contacts could not be traced locally.

It says that "the rapid spread of Indian variant cases... may be partially or largely attributable to risks in the international travel control system", adding: "These were exacerbated by the sporadic failure of the national Test and Trace system."

It does sound like a system error more than blatant incompetence Anyone that has worked with computers know that they can for no reason dump a load of data into a black hole and not advised the operator it has done it.

This is really bizarre....there's another thread about how people who don't obey the rules are going to spread COVID, but here's actual evidence of how a Government System failed in its basic purpose and people are saying that's to be expected.

No, its not acceptable. I "worked with computers" for years in an industry where getting the data right was mission critical, and we didn't lose people's data. That's why you have error checking and over-engineering of the system, to get it right. We didn't dump data into a black hole then shrug our shoulders, saying "ah well, S*** happens."

Alegrias1 ?

I did not say anybody dumped data I a black hole on purpose if it's never happened to you that's marvellous
I have had an accounts system do just that and it took tech quite a while to find out why

Never happened to me that a critical system failed in its primary purpose for several weeks with nobody noticing. I was "tech" and if one of my team had let that happen I'd have had their guts for garters. And it was a wee bit more complicated than accounts.

Then I bow to your clearly superior knowledge Algerias
I am quite obviously not on your level
Fortunately nobody had my guts for garters as it was caused by a system error and my only superior the CEO would not dream of doing son

doing so
Note to self do not watch tv and type

The point I'm trying to make rosie1959 is that the Test and Trace system is clearly not fulfilling its requirements. Somebody, some group of developers, were commissioned to create that system and the one, big thing it has to do is tell local authorities which people in their areas were positive, so that they could then follow them up. And it didn't do that. So somebody in "tech" has created a system that failed quite spectacularly. System errors aren't acts of God, they happen for a reason and in this case it should have been identified at the testing stage.

They could have had redundancy in the system that sent the data twice just in case, or error checking that made sure that the number of cases input was equalled by the number of cases sent out. But no, for 3 weeks it kept on missing people. If someone on one of my development teams had committed such a basic error, guts would have been taken for garters.

I certainly wouldn't have been blaming the operators, but you can bet the CEOs would have been blaming me. And quite right. When you create a software system, you have a responsibility to get it right, especially when people's lives depend on it.

Just a question what is the normal timespan for creating and developing a system to keep track of such large amounts of data As this didn’t even exist last March could this be a factor

Could be rosie1959. Still doesn't meet the requirements though and I would expect that the basic purpose should always be achieved. I just thought of two ways of doing it without any knowledge of the system whatsoever.

DSil works in the contact tracing system in Scotland and they are using systems which were already in place, so it can be done without developing a system from scratch.

I think that the Tory doctrine of centralisation is very much to blame. Under Tory governments the local authorities have been starved of funds whilst central government used our taxes to fund projects which ultimately benefited their friends in the private sector.

Yet it has been the local health authorities who have been proven to be effective at testing and tracing whilst the billions given to private sector Tory donors has on the whole been useless.

Thank you interesting
We all have fails with tech my ruddy phone can do an update and suddenly it decides to play up leaving me sorting through google and settings to put the problem right