Local contact tracing is needed now: tell Matt Hancock

Dear John ,

As we get closer to Saturday's reopening of pubs and restaurants, our new polling shows what the public urgently want: locally led contact tracing to get us out of lockdown safely.

Many of you made this polling happen with your generous donations. Now it is clear as day that we the public want local public health teams to be in charge of contact tracing, not Serco. Thank you!

Now it's time for government to listen. Tell Matt Hancock about the polling to ramp up the pressure after a disastrous week for outsourcing.

Tell Matt Hancock there is safer way to contact trace

The partially outsourced contact tracing is part of a worrying pattern of privatisation we've seen during and years before the crisis too. Just TODAY the government announced plans to set up a testing network parallel to the NHS's superior labs: It's privatisation by the backdoor and we can't accept it.

Our polling found that:

Just 15% of the public think private companies like Serco should be in charge of the coronavirus contact tracing system.
Of people who had heard of them, 49% deemed Serco “wasteful” and 46% “untrustworthy”.
2 out of 3 people believe local public health teams and local health services should be in charge.

The public, and top scientists agree, and this week has created a mountain of evidence. With Leicester going into lockdown, and LOADS of news stories on testing and contact tracing, the pressure is mounting.

But now it's time for government to hear directly from you.

Take action to put the pressure on Hancock today!

While local authorities, public health protection teams and health services staff have years of expertise in contact tracing, and are tapped into local networks, Serco’s call handlers have complained of a lack of training, and criticised the entire system.

It is no wonder then that local health protection teams have traced seven times more contacts than the national call centres and online service according to recent figures.

We've written a piece about the polling on LocalGov today, so local leaders can see the results and know that we support their work.

But we need your help to so Matt Hancock feels the heat, and ends Serco's role in contact tracing.

Send an email to get us safe, public test, track and isolate

Thank you so much for your support. You are helping to get everyone in this country a test, track and isolate programme we can have faith in. We've got a challenge on our hands, but we've got you!

Solidarity,

Cat, Alice, Pascale, Chris, and Ellen - the We Own It team

P.S. There's still time to make a birthday cake for the NHS with a message! Make sure this government can't get away with clapping for the NHS this Sunday, while continuing to hand out slices of it to private companies. See the amazing cakes that have been made so far, and get baking (or decorating!).

We Own It

The Old Music Hall

106-108 Cowley Road

Oxford, Oxfordshire OX4 1JE

United Kingdom

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