Three-quarters say NHS has Dealt with Covid Better than Private Firms in Damning Poll

The survey found 75% thought the NHS and local public health teams had been “more effective at handling the response to the pandemic”.

Just 9% chose private firms - such as those running Test and Trace contact-tracing - and the remaining 16% said they didn’t know.

We Own It campaigns officer Pascale Robinson said: “This poll shows what campaigners and the public health community have been saying throughout this pandemic.

“The response to Covid is best managed by people who know what they’re doing and have decades of experience working in public health, not by outsourcing companies and management consultants.

“It’s time to give our NHS services and staff the funding they need to respond properly to Covid and rebuild our NHS in its aftermath.”

Dr John Puntis, Co-Chair of campaign group Keep Our NHS Public, added: “It is the work of the NHS that is rightly favoured by the British public…

“Lives have been needlessly lost due to a desire to award contracts to the friends of those in government, or by relying on the private sector instead of the NHS to deliver public health initiatives.”

The Government has been hit by a huge backlash to plans for a real term wage cut for health workers. It has recommended a measly 1% rise – in reality, a cut when inflation is due to hit 1.5%.

Full story at The Mirror