Panorama 2020 E37
Category
🦄
CreativityTranscript
00:00My name's Alex. I'm a coronavirus tracer.
00:07My grey hairs that are turning up now have come from trying to deal with this system. It's driving me mad.
00:16We will have a test, track and trace operation that will be world-beating, world-beating, world-beating.
00:25I'm also a whistleblower, filming my experience as NHS Test and Trace goes live.
00:32Communication buffer resources with another process. I have absolutely no idea what that means.
00:38I speak to families confused by the new system.
00:41I said, you want me to self-isolate till a date in the past? It feels like something that is doomed to fail from the outset, if I'm honest.
00:49And leaders of the first city in England to face local lockdown.
00:54I don't think we were given any thought at all at a local level. Our understanding was not used.
01:01The government is now telling us to brace for a second wave of coronavirus. Can NHS Test and Trace cope?
01:08I'm pretty ashamed to say to people this is what I'm doing.
01:11I feel like I've achieved a big fat zero.
01:25It's May, and like millions of people, I can't go to work because of coronavirus lockdown.
01:33You feel pretty useless sitting here at home, you know, not doing very much.
01:38Then this email popped up looking for people to do the test and trace system.
01:45If I can do something that will make even a tiny little bit of difference to this and help people get back to some sort of normality,
01:52then absolutely sign me up.
02:00Nearly 36,000 people have already died with COVID-19 in the UK.
02:05And around 2,300 people a day are testing positive.
02:12The government has a plan to help defeat coronavirus and keep the economy open for business.
02:18We will have a test, track and trace operation that will be world beating.
02:24And yes, it will be in place. It will be in place by June the 1st.
02:30A brand new system for England to test more people, call the contacts of anyone who's tested positive,
02:37friends, family, colleagues, and then ask them all to self-isolate.
02:41Virus tracing, already taking place in hospitals and care homes, will be rolled into the new system.
02:48Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own programmes.
02:52Thousands, including me, are being recruited for the new service in England.
02:57They have stepped up to serve their country in its hour of need,
03:02and I want to thank them in advance for the life-saving work that they're about to do.
03:11I'm a healthcare professional and begin training to be a clinical contact case worker.
03:17It'll be my job to call people who've just tested positive.
03:21From the start, I experience chaos and confusion.
03:26So I contact the BBC where I worked four years ago and begin filming.
03:32It's just absolutely mind-blowing, the amount of stuff that you need to be able to rattle off.
03:37Pages and pages and pages and you just keep whizzing through it.
03:43I'm paid between £17 and £27 an hour, depending what day I work.
03:48Part of a new army of virus tracers, almost all working from home.
03:58Today we formally launch NHS Test and Trace.
04:02This system will start tomorrow morning at 9am.
04:06And the first people who'll be contacted will be the people who received a positive result today.
04:11Well, that's news to us. As far as we were concerned, it was the 1st of June, but even that was in doubt.
04:17I'm worried I won't be ready, because I'm having problems logging in and booking shifts.
04:23The system keeps crashing. We keep all being told how important it is,
04:27but they seem to not be able to get the glitches out of the system.
04:32Two days after Test and Trace goes live, I start my first shift.
04:37Cases aren't assigned to us. Instead, we have to press a button, signalling we're ready to take one.
04:43I press the button a lot.
04:46Start tracing.
04:49There are currently no available records for you for this campaign,
04:52which means that I've got no one to follow up with at the moment.
04:54So I've reached the end of my shift, my first shift online, and I had zero cases to deal with today.
05:01So I've just finished my second shift. It was 8am till 2pm, and I didn't have a single case.
05:11Yet again, I've got no cases to trace.
05:14I don't understand why not, when we're all sitting here, twiddling our thumbs.
05:17It's the 12th of June, and more than 900 people in England test positive today.
05:22But still, I have nothing to do.
05:24So I'm logged in. It's shift number six since we have gone live.
05:29And I've got no cases to track again.
05:32I'm not alone.
05:35So we have a Facebook page, which has been created to help people who are in need.
05:42So we have a Facebook page, which has been created as a support network for this job.
05:49Haven't had a case in days, and there's 20 comments.
05:52Yep, same, same.
05:55Something tells me the system isn't working properly.
05:58Surely there's been some positive results in the country.
06:01And someone else's reply, you know, must be the mind boggles.
06:06By the 2nd of July, around 31,000 people have tested positive in England.
06:11And nearly 24,000 of them have been contacted since the system went live.
06:17It's all smiles.
06:19First from the Prime Minister, in a personal message to us.
06:22Hi folks, I wanted to thank each and every one of you for being part of the NHS Test and Trace service,
06:29as we mark one month now since the service was launched.
06:33And the progress that has been made and the difference you're already making.
06:37And then from Dido Harding, who leads Test and Trace.
06:41Just for this moment, enjoy and feel deep pride in what you've achieved.
06:46It's incredible. Thank you.
06:50I feel like I've achieved a big fat zero.
06:53Because I haven't had any calls to deal with.
06:56I haven't spoken to a single case.
06:58I've been on shift now 11 times since the thing's gone live, and nothing.
07:02With more than 1,000 case workers like me on shift at any one time,
07:06I'm beginning to wonder if there are just too many of us.
07:08Chris Hobson represents All NHS Trusts in England.
07:12It wouldn't seem to me to be a massive error or failure
07:18to create a test and trace system in which you've got more people than you need,
07:24particularly in the summer months when we know that the transition rate may be lower.
07:28What you do need to be ready for is when the transmission rates increase,
07:33which they might do in winter.
07:39Lockdown restrictions in England are being eased,
07:43but there are local spikes in infection.
07:46We are doing much more to be able to trace these individual outbreaks.
07:53For instance, there's an outbreak right now in parts of Leicester.
07:59The Secretary of State stood up at a Downing Street press conference
08:03and announced that there was, as he described it,
08:06an outbreak in Leicester.
08:08It was then 11 days before anything happened.
08:13You have to say that it was done in a way that was slow and painful.
08:21Leicester is heading for lockdown.
08:24There are around 70 new cases a day, and by the end of June,
08:28the city accounts for more than 10% of all confirmed cases in England.
08:37Officials have been struggling to identify the cause of the fresh outbreak.
08:42Leicester City Council knows it has a problem.
08:46What it needs is specific information about who is testing positive and where.
08:51The national system collects that data, but isn't sharing all of it with local authorities.
08:56If we had that information, particularly at street level, that would have been ideal.
09:03Local authorities do this all the time.
09:06This is not new to us, whether it's through environmental health officers,
09:10people that we use for sexual health services. We're used to this.
09:15The big element that was missing was the expertise that local government has on the ground.
09:22Tom Reardon was asked by the government to come up with a plan
09:27to plug local councils into the new system.
09:30So once we had the national test and trace system in place,
09:34we needed to connect it extremely well with local activity
09:39and put directors of public health right at the heart of the contained strategy for the country,
09:46because you can't do that from a desk in Whitehall.
09:50But officials in Leicester say it came too late for their city.
09:54BBC Radio Leicester.
09:57Stricter lockdown controls are being reintroduced in Leicester
10:01after a sharp increase in cases of coronavirus in the city.
10:04If they had been feeding through to us where the positive tests were coming from,
10:10I am absolutely convinced we could have intervened at a much, much earlier stage.
10:16And had we been able to, I'm absolutely convinced that there would have been no question whatsoever
10:21of having to take any special measures, lockdown or other, in Leicester.
10:26The Department of Health and Social Care says the system was launched when it was operationally ready
10:31and staffing levels are kept under constant review.
10:35It says local authorities have been an integral part of its response throughout
10:40and that they've been receiving test, case and contact tracing data since June the 24th.
10:51Back in my front room, I'm having more problems.
10:54I'm struggling with the computer system we're using.
10:56This system that we work with is quite possibly the most complicated system I've ever come across.
11:03And essentially what it is, is two different systems that are being stuck together
11:08and you have to jump between the two of them.
11:16And there are more glitches.
11:19Today has been a total and utter waste of time.
11:22I've been unable to log in for the entire shift.
11:25Same password I always use. There you go. Invalid email or password.
11:30I get very few cases, but when I do, the system sometimes won't let me follow them up.
11:36Communication buffer resources with another process and has been chosen as the deadlock victim.
11:41I have absolutely no idea what that means.
11:44I'm regularly on the phone to team leaders.
11:47They tell me similar issues are being reported by others too.
11:50You just don't know what's going on and I can pretty safely say
11:54that my grey hairs that are turning up now have come from trying to deal with this system.
11:59It's driving me mad.
12:09Nearly 30,000 people in England who have tested positive have now been contacted since the system launched.
12:15But the performance of Test and Trace is under fire.
12:17I can certainly give the House the assurance that our Test and Trace system
12:21is as good as or better than any other system anywhere in the world.
12:26And yes, it will play a vital part in ensuring that we do not have a second spike this winter.
12:37I think one of the unfortunate things that NHS Test and Trace has had,
12:41and it's like a millstone around its neck, was the Prime Minister,
12:43was the Prime Minister's statement that this was going to be a world-class service.
12:47It is vital that we have confidence in NHS Test and Trace
12:50because it's such an important service for all of us.
12:53And therefore to, in a sense, hobble it right from the beginning
12:57by saying it was going to be world-class when it clearly wasn't,
13:00in our view, was really unhelpful.
13:03I only call people who've tested positive.
13:06Another part of the system calls their close contacts to ask them to self-isolate too.
13:14It's an important job, and I'm on my way to meet one of the 12,000 contact tracers doing it.
13:22I'm going to meet one of the 12,000 contact tracers doing it.
13:26I'm going to meet one of the 12,000 contact tracers doing it.
13:30I have to log on to a system called Global Protect.
13:34OK.
13:36Tobin's been working full-time from home for nine weeks.
13:39He works in small teams of around 15 people.
13:42Most people, including myself, have had no records or no end-to-end call.
13:49An end-to-end call is when the contact that we are reaching picks up,
13:54and I've had none of those.
13:56I've had two calls, neither of which have been end-to-end.
14:00He's done 40 shifts and been paid around £4,000 so far.
14:05Tobin also knows all about pressing the button, chasing cases.
14:09So when you look at it, in six weeks you've only had two calls,
14:13and you've probably pressed that button about a million times in that period.
14:17Exactly, exactly.
14:19You're not doing anything apart from clicking this button,
14:22and like you, that's not what I want to be doing.
14:23Then the button delivers a case.
14:26Blimey. Well, I didn't think it would happen, but I've got a record.
14:29Before he makes the call, Tobin checks in with his supervisor.
14:33Are you happy for me to go ahead with that, yeah?
14:38Excellent, thank you.
14:46No answer, and he can't leave a message.
14:49He's got to get back to work.
14:50No answer, and he can't leave a message.
14:53He says it's only the third time he's made a call,
14:56and they've all ended the same way.
14:58So what happens now it's rung out, what happens next?
15:01It will be rescheduled again, and then it will keep on going within that cycle
15:05until either they reach the max call attempts,
15:08or they answer and complete the questionnaire.
15:12If there's no contact after ten attempts, that's it.
15:16Any chance to persuade the person to self-isolate appears to be lost.
15:21It is demoralising, and it just doesn't make you feel good,
15:25and it doesn't make you feel good about what's going on with COVID-19 either.
15:39Two private companies, Serco and Cytel,
15:42are responsible for hiring tracers like Tobin.
15:45Cytel also helped set up parts of the new system.
15:48Contracts for the first three months alone were worth around £192 million.
15:56The government says it's now set aside £12 billion for test and trace.
16:00By the end of July, an estimated £1 billion had already been spent.
16:06I mean, there's substantial sums of money going out the door,
16:09and we don't know exactly what it's achieving.
16:11The Public Accounts Committee is going to be looking at this,
16:13the National Audit Office is looking at this,
16:14but we don't have any more information as we sit here right now.
16:18We need to see how our money's being spent.
16:20They should never shy away from being open about how taxpayers' money's being spent,
16:24because in the end, we're all going to have to pay this back over however many years.
16:28It's not free money, it belongs to the British public.
16:31The Department of Health and Social Care says the service is one of the largest
16:35testing and contact tracing systems in the world.
16:38It works with a wide range of public and private sector partners
16:42who are all experts in call handling.
16:44And that initial technical issues were resolved quickly.
16:47It says more information about how funding is being spent
16:51will be published next summer.
16:59I want to know what it can be like to take a call from Test and Trace.
17:03I meet a family who had a surprising experience.
17:08Dan Saxton was told he had coronavirus on the 12th of August.
17:13There's a guilt complex, I guess, with having had COVID,
17:17that you might have passed it on without knowing, you know,
17:21that gate you touched, the door you touched, or just being, walking past someone.
17:26Dan had been staying with his parents in Cumbria,
17:30so he alerted them immediately.
17:32I was like, jeepers, I was not expecting that at all.
17:36And then suddenly your mind starts racing.
17:38OK, if he's positive, what does that mean? What do we need to do?
17:42So we basically did even more lockdown isolating,
17:45because there was the possibility that we were infected as well.
17:49Joe went for a test and came back negative.
17:54Nine days after he first found out about his son,
17:57he got a series of calls, which he ignored.
18:01I don't tend to answer 0300 numbers, you know.
18:06And I don't answer 0300 numbers
18:08because they're usually somebody trying to sell me something.
18:10The next day, Joe realised who may be trying to get in touch with him.
18:15This time, he picked up.
18:18The poor woman had to tell me on the 23rd of August
18:22that I should be self-isolating until the 16th of August.
18:26And I said, that's a week ago.
18:28You want me to self-isolate till a date in the past?
18:31And you could hear the sort of embarrassment and exasperation
18:35in this woman's voice, that she's asking me to do something
18:38that is patently bonkers.
18:41There will be people who know what to do,
18:44but the whole point of the system is we need to support people
18:47who don't know what to do, who may not have English as a first language,
18:50who may not have a place where they can isolate easily,
18:54who may not be able to afford to take two weeks off
18:57because they're on hourly paid contracts on very low wages
19:00and they've got kids to feed.
19:02Today, the government has begun paying some people on lower incomes
19:05£500 to encourage them to self-isolate.
19:19It's almost two months since Leicester went into local lockdown.
19:23Positive cases have fallen to fewer than 30 a day.
19:27The City Council and other local authorities in England
19:31are now able to get more information from Test and Trace.
19:34Morning.
19:36They're being given the details of people who've tested positive,
19:40but only after the national system hasn't been able to make contact
19:44within 24 hours.
19:48OK, so Sarah.
19:50Looks like there's only a couple of cases,
19:53and based on the surname and the postcode and the contact number,
19:57I think they're at the same address.
19:59Sarah is trying to reach a woman who, together,
20:01with her child, has tested positive,
20:04but who hasn't yet been spoken to.
20:07The major goal that we're doing from all of this
20:10is that people are contacted to be told that they are a positive case
20:14so that they know to isolate.
20:16Sarah's got a mobile number,
20:18passed on to her from the national system.
20:22Dale?
20:24Yeah?
20:26That one went to voicemail on my first attempt.
20:28No worries, I'm going to have a quick look
20:29and see if I can find any more information for you.
20:34If a person doesn't answer a call when I make it,
20:37there's very little I can do.
20:39But local authorities have other databases they can search,
20:43like school rolls and council tax lists.
20:46We think we've got the address.
20:48The number.
20:50Do you want to just jot it down?
20:52Mm-hm.
20:54In just a few minutes, Sarah has a landline number to try.
20:57She gets through.
20:59Hello, this is Sarah.
21:01I'm calling from the Leicester City Council
21:03working on the NHS test and trace.
21:05Have you got a minute to talk to me?
21:07Because you've been identified as a confirmed case of COVID-19
21:10and I need to make a list of people
21:12that you may have come into contact with
21:14around the time of your illness.
21:16Is that OK?
21:18I'm impressed.
21:20But Sarah had to wait for my system to try and fail first.
21:23And right now, the City Council says
21:25confirmed cases can take up to 10 days to reach them.
21:27I don't feel that we are plugged into the system.
21:30You know, we've got this unit that's set up ourselves,
21:32so when that information comes to us,
21:34the people that you can't get and that comes to us,
21:37we're like a separate system
21:39that goes, you know, the point of last resort
21:43and we go and get them.
21:45Local authorities, like Leicester,
21:47don't want to be last.
21:49They want to be first and in control.
21:51The fundamental thing that would make the crucial difference
21:55to our ability to intervene
21:57is the names and addresses.
21:59Immediately, they test positive.
22:03Those contacts need to be rung up quickly
22:06and they need to be persuaded to self-isolate quickly.
22:09And to be frank, if you've not really done that
22:11within 24, 48 hours,
22:13then I wouldn't say it's useless,
22:16but certainly you're reducing the effectiveness.
22:19We're probably losing too many people.
22:22It potentially has an impact
22:24in terms of how many people are infected
22:25and ultimately, if we don't get it right,
22:27it means potentially more people dying.
22:33I can only do my job
22:35if lots of people are able to get tests.
22:37As schools and universities return after the summer,
22:41the system is under pressure.
22:43People in some areas are having to travel
22:45more than 100 miles for coronavirus tests.
22:48Another week begins with reports of struggles
22:51to get bookings for coronavirus tests.
22:54Long waits and frustration for people queuing
22:57at a walk-in virus testing centre.
23:00Crucially, the most important bit, in a sense,
23:03is that when anybody needs a test,
23:06they can get access to it quickly,
23:08which is not currently happening at the moment.
23:12During lockdown in Leicester,
23:14the city council began targeted testing,
23:16funded by additional government money.
23:19Good morning. My name's Harvey.
23:21I'm going to do the full test.
23:23I'm going to do the full staff brief.
23:25So what you're going to be doing
23:27is you're going to be going out into the community
23:29to support the COVID testing in Leicester City.
23:31Mobile teams hit the streets.
23:33Staff redeployed from other parts of the council.
23:38Hello there, darling.
23:40We're doing COVID-19 testing in the area.
23:42We're offering everybody a home kit.
23:44Are you OK, my hon?
23:46Everything OK?
23:48Yeah.
23:50Officials in the city
23:51provide a glimpse
23:53of what local control of testing can achieve.
23:56When we're dealing with this pandemic,
23:58whether it's testing,
24:00whether it's contact tracing,
24:02we've got information
24:04that helps us to understand our communities.
24:06We know our communities. We live here.
24:08We work with these communities every day.
24:10OK? We'll see you in 30 minutes.
24:12Thank you very much.
24:15What I think we need to do
24:17is to put public health specialists
24:19in charge
24:21of the system.
24:23And the way we do that
24:25is by giving them the ability
24:27to deploy testing capability
24:29and tracing capability
24:31to the places where it's
24:33breaking out and clustering.
24:35I would be delighted
24:37if now,
24:39belatedly,
24:41we were given the responsibility
24:43for making sure
24:45that the testing takes place
24:47at a local level,
24:49the follow-up takes place
24:51and the transmission of the virus
24:53takes place at a local level.
24:56The Department of Health and Social Care
24:58says it's given local authorities
25:00£300m for outbreak control plans
25:03and is providing dedicated teams
25:05with contact tracers.
25:07It says the service is working hard
25:09to break chains of transmission
25:11with almost half a million people contacted,
25:13most, it says, within 24 hours.
25:16It says it's providing tests
25:18at an unprecedented scale.
25:22More than 2,000 people
25:24are testing positive in England.
25:28And I'm still pressing the button.
25:33So I've essentially sat here
25:35for four hours
25:37and I was trying to figure out
25:39actually how many times
25:41I've clicked this button,
25:43roughly between 110 and 120 times
25:45on a four-hour shift.
25:47Eventually, I get a case.
25:49It looks like it could be
25:51another case.
25:53So I just tried to call this person.
25:55There was no answer.
25:57There's no other phone number.
25:59Like, this person is positive.
26:01Potentially, he might not have even
26:03picked up his email alert
26:05to say he is positive.
26:07And if there's a care home involved,
26:09which is what's being said here,
26:11that's really worrying.
26:13Another case goes back into the system.
26:15There's nothing more I can do.
26:17I'm pretty ashamed to say to people
26:19this is what I'm doing
26:21to make a difference,
26:23to make a turnaround,
26:25to make a contribution.
26:27Hospital admissions are now rising
26:29and coronavirus restrictions
26:31are being ramped up.
26:34Throughout the summer,
26:36the Prime Minister promised
26:38that NHS Test and Trace
26:40would play a vital role
26:42in preventing a second spike this winter.
26:44Now, he says,
26:46it's down to us.
26:48If people don't follow
26:49the right,
26:51then we must reserve
26:53the right to go further.
26:55There are unquestionably
26:57difficult months to come
26:59and the fight against COVID
27:01is by no means over.
27:03When we look back
27:05and when the public inquiry happens,
27:07people will look at
27:09what should have been done earlier.
27:11I think there were
27:13extremely challenging circumstances
27:15for everybody involved
27:17during that first period
27:19of this year.
27:21We've got to learn the lesson from it
27:23and the best lesson we can learn
27:25is that the local and the national
27:27working together in unison
27:29with equally strong
27:31parity of esteem,
27:33if you like,
27:34between the two
27:36is what will get us the best result.
27:38Latest government figures show
27:40just over one in five people
27:42testing positive for coronavirus
27:44aren't being reached
27:46by NHS Test and Trace.
27:47During my time there,
27:49I spoke to just one person
27:51who tested positive.
27:53I do my last shift
27:55on the 16th of September.
27:57Are you sure? Yes, log out.
27:59So I've come to the end
28:01of my Test and Trace journey now.
28:03I have worked
28:05four months almost.
28:07I've done 27 shifts in that time
28:09and 20 of them since it's gone live.
28:11Is it what I thought it would be?
28:14Nope.
28:15Is it what I'd hoped it would be?
28:17No.
28:30Talking from the heart,
28:32an honest and vulnerable account
28:34as Freddie Flintoff opens up
28:36about his personal struggle
28:38living with bulimia.
28:40That's tonight at nine on BBC One.
28:45BBC One.