A row has broken out between Greater Manchester’s Mayor Andy Burnham and the Health Secretary Matt Hancock over whether the region has received the localised information by Postcode on COVID testing
Appearing on the Andrew Marr show this morning, Hancock, replying to a question in which the Mayor was quoted in the Mirror saying the region was not getting the concise information on COVID-19 testing, the Health Secretary said that Manchester had been given the detail and if Andy wanted help in interpreting it, he would happily supply more experts
Responding, Andy Burnham said:
”My ask of the Health Secretary is a simple one: give us everything the Government has got on Greater Manchester. That’s not happening at the moment.” adding in a statement that:
“What we need is the real-time, patient-identifiable data that the Government receives rather than the limited, anonymised data we are currently getting”
Manchester Council’s Executive member for Health Bev Craig went further with her response:
“We aren’t too thick to understand it thanks, you just need to hand it over. Not sure you want to pick this fight Mr Hancock when as of Friday we still didn’t have postcode data. Complete incompetence.“
Burnham added in his statement that
One expert told me this week that the lack of patient-specific data was like local detectives being asked to solve crimes without being given the names of any of the victims or suspects.
