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skinny
Sure, but a (working) year of 2,500 consultants at £1000 a day is "only" £600m. That's not a significant part of a £22bn (or £37bn) budget.
I'd be interested in seeing the breakdown for the "test" part (which is hugely important, has genuine large costs, and has made a huge difference) and the "trace" part (which has been a shitshow).
As others have said, the "test" side of things has performed nearly 100m Covid tests so far, and they're hardly going to be cheap. At a guess of £50 a pop (remember to have to pay for the analysis part too) that's £5bn.
My point is more that you shouldn't think that all of the £22bn (or £37bn) has been wasted because the tracing part has failed. A large proportion of that budget has gone on the "test" part which is hugely important. It's a cunning Tory trick to tie the wasteful parts together with the necessary parts to hide things. It's everyone else's job to try and untie these and see just how much was frittered away needlessly.
So it's beyond galling when you consider a 1% pay rise for nurses would cost something around £217m for a year (although the pay deal was supposed to cover lots more than just nurses) and was already budgeted for a few years ago. But Tories gotta Tory.