Syndromic surveillance summary: 15 December 2022 week 49
Updated 5 January 2023
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Reporting week 49: 5 November to 11 December 2022
During week 49, there were further increases in GP consultation rates and emergency department (ED) attendances for scarlet fever, particularly in children aged 1 to 4 years and aged 5 to 14 years. There were also continued increases observed across a range of respiratory indicators in all syndromic systems, including ED attendances for influenza-like illness, which are above seasonally expected levels. ED attendances for ‘acute bronchitis’ and ‘acute bronchiolitis’ continued to decrease during week 49 indicating activity has peaked. ‘Impact of cold’ indicators increased during week 49 in line with the current Cold weather alert: level 3 – cold weather action in place across England.
Remote health advice syndromic surveillance system
During week 49, there were further large increases in NHS 111 total calls for children aged 1 to 4 years and 5 to 14 years. Calls and online assessments increased across a range of respiratory indicators. Of note, there were further increases observed in sore throat, cold and flu calls and online assessments across all age groups over 1 year old.
Please note: the continued widespread national media coverage of the ‘group A strep’ incident is likely to have increased the volume of NHS 111 calls and online assessments, particularly for children with respiratory symptoms. The data presented in this report should therefore be interpreted with some caution.
Access the remote health advice syndromic surveillance bulletins on GOV.UK.
GP in hours syndromic surveillance system
During week 49, GP in-hours consultation rates for upper and lower respiratory tract infections and influenza-like illness continued to increase in all age groups and are at above seasonally expected levels. There were sharp increases in ‘pharyngitis or scarlet fever’ and scarlet fever indicators, most notably in children aged under 15 years. Consultation rates for impetigo also increased during week 49 in children aged 1 to 4 years and aged 5 to 14 years.
Access the GP in hours syndromic surveillance bulletins on GOV.UK.
GP out of hours syndromic surveillance system
Daily GP out-of-hours contact data from 4 August 2022 onwards has not been received due to a widely publicised disruption faced by one of the GP out-of-hours clinical software system providers. We have since been informed that this disruption was as a result of a cybersecurity incident caused by ransomware. We are working closely with our data provider to restore the daily syndromic feed.
Access the GP out-of-hours syndromic surveillance bulletins on GOV.UK.
Emergency department syndromic surveillance system
During week 49, acute respiratory infection attendances increased, observed across all age groups except for aged under 1 year. There were further increases in attendances for influenza-like illness across all age groups, however acute bronchiolitis attendances decreased in the under 1 year and 1 to 4 year age groups. There were sharp increases seen in attendances for scarlet fever, particularly in children. During week 49 there were increases in ‘impact of cold’ attendances nationally, particularly in the group aged 45 to 64 years and the group aged under 65 years.
Access the emergency department syndromic surveillance bulletins on GOV.UK.
Ambulance syndromic surveillance system
During week 49, ambulance dispatch calls for difficulty breathing and ‘cardiac or respiratory arrest’ increased. There were also increases observed in ‘impact of heat or cold’ ambulance calls in line with the recent cold weather alert across England.
Access the ambulance syndromic surveillance bulletins on GOV.UK.