‘HORRIFIED' medical experts have panned Boris Johnson’s “dangerous” plan to spend £100 billion on a mass testing programme named Operation Moonshot.

A leaked Whitehall memo reveals that the project to facilitate millions of daily tests across the UK is a “top priority” for the Prime Minister.

Leaked documents seen by the BMJ suggest that the scheme – devised as part of efforts to help the UK return to normality by Christmas – could have a price tag close to that of the £114bn budget given to NHS England in 2018/19.

Johnson believes it could help sport and entertainment venues reopen fully and allow people to socially mix in large groups again with on-the-day tests.

However, critics have warned the plan is “devoid of any contribution” from scientific and medical experts and seems to be “totally oblivious” to the potential pitfalls of a mass testing system.

READ MORE: Virus passes still the stuff of ‘science fiction’, says Jason Leitch

Documents seen by the British Medical Journal show Operation Moonshot would rely heavily on the private sector to roll out testing in workplaces, entertainment venues, and football stadiums and at GP surgeries, pharmacies, schools, and other local sites.

People who test negative would be given digital immunity passports, allowing them to return to workplaces, travel, and participate in other activities.

Earlier this week, Scotland’s national clinical director dismissed the concept of a mass testing programme with “Covid passes” as being in the realms of “science fiction”.

The National: Scotland's national clinical director Jason LeitchScotland's national clinical director Jason Leitch

UK Ministers have faced increasing pressure in recent days over availability of tests, with many people reporting being sent hundreds of miles from home to get checked for the illness.

And BMA council chairman Chaand Nagpaul said it was unclear how Moonshot would work given the "huge problems" currently seen with lab capacity.

READ MORE: Operation Moonshot: Mass testing could create ‘freedom pass’ for close contact

Jon Deeks, professor of biostatistics at the University of Birmingham and leader of the Cochrane Collaboration’s Covid-19 test evaluation activities, raised the alarm over a lack of input from expers.

He told the BMJ: “I’m horrified that the plans are devoid of any contribution from scientists, clinicians, and public health and testing and screening experts. These are plans from the world of management consultants and show complete ignorance of many essential basic principles of testing, public health, and screening. The authors appear totally oblivious to the harms that universal screening can create – this is frankly dangerous.”

Deeks also warned the testing roll-out could produce masses of false positive results. “Even if you have a test which is 99% specific, so only 1% of uninfected people get a false positive result, if you then test 60 million people we will be classifying a group the size of the population of Sheffield as wrongly having covid,” he said. “In such a scenario, 600 000 people would be told to isolate, along with their close contacts, leading to “substantial economic harm and massive need for further testing.”

Devi Sridhar, professor and chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, added: “I haven’t seen these details before, and my first thought is that I’m glad the government is moving in the direction of mass testing, but the proof is in the pudding.

“The government needs to deliver this programme at scale, but I’m concerned about the reliance on the private sector to deliver this. The evidence so far is that involving local NHS capacity is more effective than outsourcing. There is a case for giving the extra billions to the NHS and asking it to deliver. I have concerns around the bidding process for these contracts. The procurement process isn’t clear, and it allows for a lot of people getting rich off this crisis. This is public money that we are going to have to pay back at some point.”