Nicola Sturgeon has said contact tracing in Scotland will “never” be outsourced to private firms.

It comes after concerns were raised by public health experts and politicians over a £1.3m contract with a call centre company to supply tracing staff.

Motherwell-based firm Ascensos, which describes itself as ‘Europe's leading customer service outsourcing partner’, already runs NHS 24’s covid-19 helpline.

Another contract for “short-term” staff was agreed as NHS workers seconded to tracing duties returned to their original roles as the health service remobilised, though no details have been published.

Speaking today, Ms Sturgeon said contact tracing would continue to be done within the health service and the private sector would not be running any part of Scotland’s NHS Test and Protect system.

“They are working in an NHS-led delivered system, we are not asking another company to do contact tracing,” she said.

“In terms of the numbers… I think it’s less than 100 of the total contact tracers that we have, so it’s a small number on a short-term basis.”

There are around 1,800 fully trained staff in place, the First Minister confirmed, with incoming workers undergoing training set to take the total past 2,000.

“This is an NHS system, it is NHS Test and Protect, the app is NHS,” Ms Sturgeon said.

“I know there is some scepticism about the validity and legitimacy of that description elsewhere but it is absolutely true here in Scotland.

“The fact that we recruit into that system from other places does not change that.”

England’s test and trace system has faced criticism from public health experts over the outsourcing of contact tracing.

Linda Bauld, Professor of Public Health at Edinburgh University, told healthandcare.scot yesterday the English system “isn't actually run by the NHS but instead divided between private companies and experienced local authority public health teams”, with the outsourced parts of the system “widely criticised due to poorer performance.”

She added: “While we all recognise the importance of expanding capacity this shouldn't be at the expense of expertise.

“So, any private call centre involvement needs to integrated with and supervised by colleagues with public health experience and qualifications.”

Asked for clarification on the arrangements with Ascensos, a Scottish government spokesperson said: “Contact tracers from Ascensos are being contracted on a short term basis and therefore they remain employees of the company, working within a system which is wholly owned, operated and managed by NHS Scotland.”

Opposition politicians said outsourcing was a “desperate move” to ease pressure on Test and Protect.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said: “The fact that the SNP government are outsourcing this work is sign that they are struggling to deliver an effective tracing system especially when they have previously criticised the use of such outsourcing by the Conservative government.”

 

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