THREAD on my alarming week looking at tracing.

In public, local leaders continue to push for a bigger role.

In private, hot anger over the national tracing system. An “intergalactic catastrophe... the very worst system I've ever seen in my life”

STORY: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/oct/10/northern-cities-seek-overhaul-of-national-tracing-shambles

Upshot: some v senior public health officials think Serco call centres aren’t needed *at all*. New issues cropping up:

- Clusters of students recorded at home address, actually 100s of miles away in halls
- Families contacted a mad no. of times (I heard a case of c.100 calls!)

Local public health directors have always felt excluded, with ministers opting for Serco-run tracing centres. But data now clear:
- 68.6% close contacts reached by national Test and Trace.
- 97.1% for local health protection teams - & they tend to deal with more complex cases.

Problem isn’t just the widening success rate - it’s that typically, Serco system will have a go for 24 hours, then pass cases on to local teams. That’s 24 hours wasted.

As one health official told me: “After about 72 hours, it’s pointless, because the people are in the system.

So what to do?

Most say use the national as a clearing house to farm out data - disentangling the national system will take some time but doable. As one public health figure said:

Unlike other bits of Covid policy, tracing evidence seems quite clear: shift focus from Serco centres to local teams. Tricky, but doable in c.2 months.

But everyone has become defensive.

Local leaders hope this will be big issue for the inquiry by @jeremy_hunt & @gregclarkMP.