Covid-19 app development ‘bumpy and painful’ says NHS boss

The development of the contact tracing app for Covid-19 was ‘bumpy and painful’ according to the head of the NHS’s innovation division. England and Wales’s app, which uses Bluetooth to keep an anonymous log of those in close proximity, was delayed due to technical issues and concerns about privacy. Speaking about the app, NHSX boss Matthew Gould said it was an ‘error’ not to tell the public it was working on both versions of the technology at the same time. ‘It was bumpy and painful but at each point I think we did plus or minus the right thing,’ he told the FabChange2020 conference.