A Crisis of Governance – Or an Opportunity?. (July 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Areal, Andreia G.; Sheppy, Bruce
• Is Part Of: Health services insights. Volume 14(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-07
• Subjects: track and trace -- digital contact tracing -- outsourcing -- digital governance -- NHS; Medical care -- Periodicals; Public health -- Periodicals; Delivery of Health Care; Quality of Health Care; Medical care; Public health; Periodicals; Fulltext; Internet Resources; Periodicals; Periodicals; 362.105
• DOI: 10.1177/11786329211033845
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1178-6329

Abstract

The National Health Service Track and Trace Programme has been one of the most pivotal and controversial tools the UK government has deployed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. This article reviews the challenges of the development and implementation of the NHS COVID-19 mobile application, and reviews these in the context of the following 3 key areas: outsourcing of public sector, organisational structure and leadership, digital framework and governance. The paper argues that the current pandemic has demonstrated weaknesses in each of the above-mentioned areas, and that is an urgent need to strategically address these in order to prepare for the next public health crisis.