Syndromic surveillance summary: 18 August 2022 week 32
Updated 5 January 2023
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Reporting week: 8 August to 14 August 2022
During week 32, national syndromic indicators for ‘impact of heat’ increased in line with the recent Level 3 Heat Health Alert.
Remote health advice syndromic surveillance system
Please note that during week 32 the number of NHS 111 calls included in this syndromic report are lower than usual. This is due to a widely publicised cybersecurity incident on 4 August caused by ransomware that affected a NHS 111 clinical software system provider that is used in certain parts of the country. We are working closely with our data providers to restore the daily syndromic feeds. The NHS 111 call data presented in this report should therefore be interpreted with some caution. Assessments of trends and levels for NHS 111 calls are based on the unaffected regions.
During week 32, ‘heat exposure or sunburn’ indicators increased in line with the recent level 3 Heat Health Alert. Calls and online assessments for ‘insect bites’ also increased.
GP in hours syndromic surveillance system
During week 32, GP in-hours consultations for ‘heat or sunstroke’ increased, in line with the recent Level 3 Heat Health Alert. There were further decreases in GP in-hours ‘coronavirus (COVID-19)-like’ consultations.
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.
There were no further updates at the time of preparation of this summary.
Emergency department syndromic surveillance system
During week 32, emergency department attendances for ‘heat or sunstroke’ increased in line with the recent Level 3 Heat Health Alert. COVID-19-like attendances continued to decrease across all regions and age groups.
Ambulance syndromic surveillance system
Ambulance calls for ‘impact of heat or cold’ increased during week 32 in line with the recent Level 3 Heat Health Alert. Calls for ‘unconscious or passing out’ and ‘collapsed with unknown problem’ also increased during week 32.