UK Data for Assessing COVID-19 Activity
May 11, 2020
Carl Heneghan, Jason Oke
In coming out of the pandemic the UK Prime Minister said “We are going to be driven by the science, the data and public health.
Here we set out the data that inform any changes in healthcare activity.
The data flows from NHS 111 calls, ambulance calls, through GP consultation data and surveillance data to hospital admissions and critical care bed occupancy and finally to deaths (the last to rise or fall). The page also includes links to National COVID-19 surveillance reports and care home data.
Coronavirus cases
NHS Pathways coronavirus triage
Latest information relating to the triage of coronavirus symptoms triaged through callers to NHS 111 and 999, and through NHS 111 online. Updated every weekday, with data from 18 March to the previous calendar day.
Numbers of reported cases, deaths, patients in the hospital and other management information such as the number of 111 calls.
GP Consultation data
Reports trends for ILI, upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) and lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI).
See: What does RCGP surveillance tell us about COVID-19 in the community?
Admissions to Hospital
In the daily Cabinet Office coronavirus briefings, The UK Gov’t publishes NHS England datasets on Hospital Acute Trusts from major emergency departments that provide a consultant-led 24-hour service (a type 1 A&E).
See : COVID-19: Admissions to Hospital
Critical Care Unit (CCU) Activity
Deaths
NHS England releases data at 2 pm each day and reports daily count up to the previous day as well as a total figure.
National COVID-19 surveillance reports
Care Homes
COVID-19: number of outbreaks in care homes – management information
Carl Heneghan is Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine, Director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine and Director of Studies for the Evidence-Based Health Care Programme. (Full bio and disclosure statement here)
Jason Oke is a Senior Statistician at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences and Module Coordinator for Statistical Computing with R and Stata (EBHC Med Stats), and Introduction to Statistics for Health Care Research (EBHC), as part of the Evidence-Based Health Care Programme.
Disclaimer: the article has not been peer-reviewed; it should not replace individual clinical judgement, and the sources cited should be checked. The views expressed in this commentary represent the views of the authors and not necessarily those of the host institution, the NHS, the NIHR, or the Department of Health and Social Care. The views are not a substitute for professional medical advice.
