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Coronavirus

ricky2tricky4city said:
The bloke says 'it's sad that those ventilators could be saving lives'............i'd assume they still will be, just not in the UK. But nice quote for a headline:rolleyes:
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Not much of a company who sent a speculative email to the complex machinations of the UK civil service to gain incremental business, but after two weeks hadn’t even followed it up. Some sales team...especially for life saving equipment.
 
DTA said:
Government investigating failure to take up offer of 25,000 ventilators

https://f7td5.app.goo.gl/gjNTBN
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Have to say from what I know of the process and the way government procure nothing surprises me
The company sending in that email may not be on an approved list and that’s stops that at the first point
Also that company may or may not be big enough financially to demonstrate their ability to deliver
The government also had to appoint a consultant to advise them (WTF and why) and that would have taken a week too
The problem in the UK is the gov processes are all set up to pass the guardian test yet when we need them to be reactive and flexible they can’t and the same press will hammer them
 
Bedfordspurs said:
Have to say from what I know of the process and the way government procure nothing surprises me
The company sending in that email may not be on an approved list and that’s stops that at the first point
Also that company may or may not be big enough financially to demonstrate their ability to deliver
The government also had to appoint a consultant to advise them (WTF and why) and that would have taken a week too
The problem in the UK is the gov processes are all set up to pass the guardian test yet when we need them to be reactive and flexible they can’t and the same press will hammer them
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@DTA ive done down very quick digging
Assume these machines cost £10k each so 25,000 would be an order for £250m...
the company Comcast government are a micro company with £98k worth of assets
Even at a down of crisis if anyone on gov commercial raised a contract on them for anything over £50k they would be sacked ...
What they should have done is go to a genuine sizeable company for help as their a small one man band
That’s not saying he couldn’t get them just that you would be a crazy person to take him on face value when his expertise is deaf access requirements
 
Bedfordspurs said:
Have to say from what I know of the process and the way government procure nothing surprises me
The company sending in that email may not be on an approved list and that’s stops that at the first point
Also that company may or may not be big enough financially to demonstrate their ability to deliver
The government also had to appoint a consultant to advise them (WTF and why) and that would have taken a week too
The problem in the UK is the gov processes are all set up to pass the guardian test yet when we need them to be reactive and flexible they can’t and the same press will hammer them
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Sounds like the kind of thing the private sector does well and the government does poorly.
 
scaramanga said:
Sounds like the kind of thing the private sector does well and the government does poorly.
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Understatement
I can talk form current experience
I’ve worked predominantly in private sector and I’m now advising on a £1.5B procurement as the lead commercial guy... it’s like pulling teeth
But in defence here of the government that company that offered the ventilators is a tiny tiny outfit who would have probably gone bust the day they took the order
 
Bedfordspurs said:
@DTA ive done down very quick digging
Assume these machines cost £10k each so 25,000 would be an order for £250m...
the company Comcast government are a micro company with £98k worth of assets
Even at a down of crisis if anyone on gov commercial raised a contract on them for anything over £50k they would be sacked ...
What they should have done is go to a genuine sizeable company for help as their a small one man band
That’s not saying he couldn’t get them just that you would be a crazy person to take him on face value when his expertise is deaf access requirements
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You know what that's good information so thank you. I still think that in these times that it should have been looked into to see if it is possible that they can deliver. The procurement procedure for these things need to be streamlined urgently.
 
The BBC said the other day that, globally, we produce 100k ventilators a year (it was on the live text thing), so where did this guy get 25k of them from?

Could be a right rooster up of course, but does sound a little bit too good to be true.
 
DTA said:
You know what that's good information so thank you. I still think that in these times that it should have been looked into to see if it is possible that they can deliver. The procurement procedure for these things need to be streamlined urgently.
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It will never get streamlined
My current project has an 9 month post bid approval period... and there will be 15 full time civil servants and me on that
I’m on a 2 1/2 year programme and I would have done this is less than a year in the private sector
It’s all because of the “guardian test” as they call it
I’ve never ever seen so many assurance steps
We have a team who check excel formulas FFS
I’ve done some stuff on excel they can’t work out and their saying the result is right but my method is wrong. It’s took me 3 days to show them it all and it’s painful
I will say that work outside of defence is a apparently quicker but it’s stills months bro weeks and years not months :mad::mad:
 
DTA said:
You know what that's good information so thank you. I still think that in these times that it should have been looked into to see if it is possible that they can deliver. The procurement procedure for these things need to be streamlined urgently.
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Do we know they didn't? Companies House will tell you in seconds that his business is not of the scale to back up his claims.
 
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Bedfordspurs said:
It will never get streamlined
My current project has an 9 month post bid approval period... and there will be 15 full time civil servants and me on that
I’m on a 2 1/2 year programme and I would have done this is less than a year in the private sector
It’s all because of the “guardian test” as they call it
I’ve never ever seen so many assurance steps
We have a team who check excel formulas FFS
I’ve done some stuff on excel they can’t work out and their saying the result is right but my method is wrong. It’s took me 3 days to show them it all and it’s painful
I will say that work outside of defence is a apparently quicker but it’s stills months bro weeks and years not months :mad::mad:
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Probably the worst part (other than me being inconvenienced) of this pandemic is that people are going to stand and watch the NHS fail then double down on their opinion of how great the NHS is.

If anything shows how the modern world has completely left behind outdated concepts like the NHS, it's their complete inability to move quickly, be flexible and be prepared for a situation like this.
 
scaramanga said:
Probably the worst part (other than me being inconvenienced) of this pandemic is that people are going to stand and watch the NHS fail then double down on their opinion of how great the NHS is.

If anything shows how the modern world has completely left behind outdated concepts like the NHS, it's their complete inability to move quickly, be flexible and be prepared for a situation like this.
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Well that’s not the NHS dealings though
The “procurement issue” will sit with the government commercial function under Gareth Williams
 
scaramanga said:
Not if it was being done in the private sector, it wouldn't.
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No that’s true
As I said the other day of they went to Tesco’s they would have them all in by now even if it meant taking them form other countries and flying them in on private jets (we did that for somethings when I worked there)
 
Rorschach said:
I had very similar symptoms for the last 4-5 days (minus the temperature) and they are starting to abate thankfully. I'll be interested to see if they do antibody checks down the road to see who had it and who didn't. Paracetamol is good advice.
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How are you doing with those symptoms now? Asking because mine are some stubborn motherfudgers. Six days and they're still persistent - and incredibly on and off. Was feeling perfectly fine yesterday, thinking I was over it all, but today I swept the front porch and now I'm exhausted and short of breath.

Not feeling particularly worse than I did last Wednesday, which is good, but I was hoping that I was past the worst of it now. More annoyed than worried, so I can't really complain of course.
 
Robbo said:
How are you doing with those symptoms now? Asking because mine are some stubborn motherfudgers. Six days and they're still persistent - and incredibly on and off. Was feeling perfectly fine yesterday, thinking I was over it all, but today I swept the front porch and now I'm exhausted and short of breath.

Not feeling particularly worse than I did last Wednesday, which is good, but I was hoping that I was past the worst of it now. More annoyed than worried, so I can't really complain of course.
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I feel pretty OK now. Maybe not 100% but back in the 90's. I'd say the symptoms lasted about a week all told, and I'm thinking some of them may have been anxiety induced. I did have that on/off thing you describe too which messes with your mind a bit. So it could have been COVID or just a seasonal thing but either way, it was on the milder side, thankfully. I guess I have to assume I had it and didn't have it and adjust my behavior accordingly. Fingers crossed it passes for you soon.
 
Rorschach said:
I feel pretty OK now. Maybe not 400% but back in the 90's. I'd say the symptoms lasted about a week all told, and I'm thinking some of them may have been anxiety induced. I did have that on/off thing you describe too which messes with your mind a bit. So it could have been COVID or just a seasonal thing but either way, it was on the milder side, thankfully. I guess I have to assume I had it and didn't have it and adjust my behavior accordingly. Fingers crossed it passes for you soon.
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Thanks, and good to hear you're better.

I can't say for certain either how much is anxiety induced and how much is the real deal, but I spoke to a neighbour who's had it the other day and the symptoms were very similar. For now I'm isolating at home, what ever it is. Hopefully it will start to loosen it's grip on me in a few days.
 
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