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The new head of the contact tracing app has only accepted the job for six months, Sky News learned, raising concerns about the rapid turnover of executives at the top of the troubled Test and Trace program.
Gaby Appleton, director of academic publishing house Elsevier, was revealed by Sky News last week as the new head of the NHS. COVID-19 app, which operates in England and Wales.
She is the third person to lead the applications team in the last six months. None of the three chiefs has experience in public health.
The news that Ms Appleton was on secondment for Test and Trace for six months was not made public when her appointment was confirmed, even though it was announced to her colleagues at Elsevier nearly a month ago, according to emails. interns viewed by Sky News.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed that Ms Appleton, who was assigned the position of Product Manager for Test and Trace, was seconded “initially for six months.”
The news that one of Test and Trace’s most senior executives is on a short-term contract may raise questions about the leadership of the program, which has come under fire following declines in the number of potential carriers of coronavirus manages to contact.
Conservative MP Sir Bernard Jenkin broke ranks Sunday to ask Test and Trace chief Dido Harding to resign, saying there was a “leadership vacuum” that was “destroying cooperation and compliance.”
Sir Bernard told Sky News: “There is a sense that there is a general lack of strategy that is at the heart of the problem.”
A Test and Trace source expressed frustration at the constant change at the top of the organization comparing it to the WWII effort to crack the German cipher, known as Enigma.
“This is perhaps the most complicated and time-consuming data management problem since Enigma,” the source said.
“Do you think the allies would have cracked the Nazi code if MI6’s leadership changed monthly?”
Appleton, who started working last week, replaced Simon Thompson, the former Apple executive who was appointed to run the show in June, just before the first contact tracing app was abandoned after it encountered technical problems.
Sky News understands that Mr. Thompson took over while on gardening leave from his previous job at the Ocado online supermarket.
It was reported last month that former Sainsbury’s boss Mike Coupe would play a key role in overseeing the tests at Test and Trace, but would only be in the position until Christmas.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “NHS Test and Trace has a leadership team, made up of the military, public and private sectors, who have built the largest diagnostic industry the UK has ever seen.”
“It’s the equivalent of building a Tesco-sized operation in a matter of months.
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“Gaby Appleton’s role as Product Manager for NHS Test and Trace, who will be responsible for the COVID-19 app, has been created to help improve and run the app now that it has been fully released.
“The appointment is initially for six months and we will always ensure that there is a strong leadership team for NHS Test and Trace.”
Although the app has been downloaded more than 18 million times, its functionality has received widespread criticism, with complaints that it sends “false alarms” telling people that they have been close to someone with coronavirus.
Sky News revealed last week that people told by the app to self-isolate could not claim the £ 500 support payment for low-wage workers, even if they were eligible for it.
A spokesman for the Department of Health and Welfare said both issues were being reviewed and ways to allow low-wage workers to claim payment from the app were being “actively explored”.
