A job advertisement for a ‘band 5 immuniser’ published on Medacs’ website called for staff to “deliver Covid-19 vaccination to all eligible citizens and assist with the overall delivery of the vaccination programme”.
Another ad required Medac staff to “travel to individual residences to deliver the vaccination to specific cohorts (such as housebound and shielding citizens) who are unable to undertake the vaccination in a vaccination centre”.
Medacs was criticised in 2019 when a Care Quality Commission report on a homecare service run by the firm was rated “inadequate”.
The regulator found “that the care people received was not safe. The majority of people’s care calls were not delivered at the time they were expected and people gave examples of where this had impacted significantly upon them and the safety of the care that they received.”
Furthermore the report noted that: “medicines records were not kept up to date and CQC identified instances where medicines records showed a potential overdose”.
At the time, Medacs said that the poor rating was down to a lack of staff after the firm won a series of contracts in quick succession. “These award successes were characterised by an unprecedented shortfall in staff transferring from the outgoing providers,” the director of the company’s Croydon care home said.
“We have invested in new staff and in additional training and support as a priority measure,” she added.
‘Politically connected companies’
Ashcroft has been one of the largest Conservative donors on record. In 2010, an Electoral Commission investigation cleared him of any wrongdoing after one of his companies, Bearwood Corporate Services, channelled more than £5m to the Tories.
Ashcroft, who famously fell out with the former Conservative prime minister David Cameron, re-emerged as a party donor in 2017, joining the Leader’s Group of top donors. Among his recent donations was £100,000 towards Shaun Bailey’s bid to become the next mayor of London.
The award of government contracts to firms with political connections has been a running issue in recent months, with billions given to companies with ties to the Conservatives. As openDemocracy reported, Boris Johnson’s government was accused of cronyism after a Tory councillor won a £156m COVID contract. Stroud councillor Steve Dechan ran a small, loss-making firm distributing medical devices.
In November, openDemocracy discovered that Lord Feldman, another former Tory chairman and a corporate lobbyist, had been secretly appointed as a COVID advisor. Feldman’s role prompted fresh concerns about privileged access given to Tory ‘friends and donors.
Commenting on the award to Medacs, the Good Law Project’s Jolyon Maugham said:
“The question many of us will have been wondering is: how will the government monetise the public health emergency that is the vaccine roll-out? The answer none of us will be surprised at is: with the help of, and so as financially to benefit, a large Conservative Party donor.”
The Department for Health and Social Care, Medacs and Impellam have all been approached for comment.
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Peter Geoghegan Russell Scott | Radio Free (2021-01-20T13:32:53+00:00) Revealed: Tory donor Lord Ashcroft’s outsourcing firm given £350m vaccination contract. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2021/01/20/revealed-tory-donor-lord-ashcrofts-outsourcing-firm-given-350m-vaccination-contract/
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