Diana Mary “Dido” Harding, who is already serving as chairwoman of NHS Improvement since 2017, has been chosen to operate a new agency replacing Public Health England (PHE).
Harding is a Conservative peer who heads the NHS England’s Test and Trace program. She will be named as the chair of the National Institute for Health Protection that will help prevent future outbreaks of infectious diseases.
Tory peers have widely criticized the poor performance of the NHS Test and Trace system.
Harding’s appointment has spared a new debate after yet another Tory politician was appointed for a senior role in the health system.
On Sunday, the government decided to scrap PHE and prompted criticism that Boris Johnson’s administration failed to handle the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The NHS England’s contact-tracing program has been under fire for tracking down too few people who have tested positive for COVID-19.
Liberal Democrat MP Munira Wilson said, “Given Dido Harding’s track record overseeing the set-up of England’s sub-par test-and-trace system, many people will be worried to hear that she may be given a pivotal new role in the NHS.”
Wilson, who is the party’s health, wellbeing, and social care spokesperson, added, “We need to have total transparency in how appointments of this kind are made, to ensure we get the best people for the job. Rather than focus on promoting yet another Tory insider, the government would do well to reflect on their handling of this pandemic and launch an independent inquiry to ensure we don’t repeat past mistakes.”
The Labour Party has criticized the “huge holes in the contact-tracing system” in England – the system that is supposed to trace people who have been in contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 and ask them to self-isolate.
The NHS Test and Trace program has a £10 billion budget and the private firms Serco and Sitel have been centrally involved. However, the program, which was created in May, has only contacted 78% of people diagnosed with COVID-19 and 72% of their contacts.
