RE: Consortiums Twitter1 Oct 2020 08:28
The Times yesterday. Doesn't name any specific test but could be?
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2020-09-30/news/coronavirus-ex-sainsburys-boss-mike-coupe-to-take-over-as-test-and-trace-chief-f50ps8g5p
Part 1
A former head of Sainsbury’s has been brought in to NHS Test and Trace to oversee the introduction of 20-minute coronavirus tests nationwide.
The appointment of Mike Coupe as testing director has set off a cronyism row, with warnings that the service was light on public health expertise.
Sources said, however, that a background in logistics, manufacturing and distribution was more important than clinical skills.
Trials of new testing technologies that give results in under an hour are being carried out around the country. Ministers aim to start making them available nationwide by the end of the year to help theatres and sporting events open with normal capacity.
The proposal is the first stage of Boris Johnson’s “moonshot” plan for regular daily checks using instant “pregnancy-test” style kits, which do not yet exist.
Officials, however, are optimistic that several different technologies, which do not require samples to be sent to labs, will prove accurate and practical. The government is also looking at other companies’ products, including two that will be made available to developing countries through a deal involving the World Health Organisation.
Mr Coupe, who retired as chief executive of Sainsbury’s in May, will take over responsibility for launching new technologies immediately and for all testing at the end of next month.
Sarah-Jane Marsh, the present testing chief, is returning to her role as head of Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Foundation Trust. “Thank you for all of the kind words re my decision to leave Test and Trace at the end of October,” she tweeted today. “Testing has come so far and by then we will have the capacity to test 500,000 people a day, but the challenge goes on and it will be a privilege to pass leadership of it over to Mike.”
Baroness Harding of Winscombe, executive chairwoman of Test and Trace, who worked at Sainsbury’s at the same time as Mr Coupe, said that he “will bring a wealth of experience in large scale supply chains, logistics and digital transformation”. In an email to staff seen by the Health Service Journal, she said: “Mike will undertake a period of induction over the next month, working with Sarah-Jane and the team across testing, initially focused on scaling new testing technologies, and will take over the testing helm when Sarah-Jane leaves us at the end of October.”
Justin Madders, the shadow health minister, said: “It is worrying that there will be even less NHS experience in Test and Trace after this change at the top. The fundamental mistake the government made with Test and Trace was to bypass existing NHS structures and go for unproven private sector solutions. It is therefore hard to see how this change is going to improve on the dire performance
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