Summary information published on high-risk patients on the Shielded Patient List

21 May 2020 04:03 PM

Anonymous summary data on patients who have been identified as being on the coronavirus (COVID-19) Shielded Patient List (SPL) was published for the first time yesterday.

The SPL2 is a very specific subset of patients judged to be at highest risk should they contract coronavirus, identified by the Chief Medical Officer. The categories of patients are outlined here3.

This management information4 will be updated frequently by NHS Digital to inform the public and support the health and social care system with planning.

The open dataset includes regional5 and local data6 to allow for analysis, modelling and planning to take place to aid the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The open data files and dashboard contain the following analysis:

Identifying patients for inclusion in the SPL required interrogation and analysis of multiple national datasets collected by NHS Digital10. These include:

The dataset will be updated frequently and our statistical teams will build the granularity and potential for insight in subsequent releases.

Feedback is welcome here: enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk Please reference “Shielded Patient List Open Dataset feedback” in the title of the email.

Read the full report

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Notes for Editors

  1. NHS Digital is the national information and technology partner of the health and care system.  Our team of information analysis, technology and project management experts create, deliver and manage the crucial digital systems, services, products and standards upon which health and care professionals depend.  During the 2019-20 financial year, NHS Digital published 285 statistical reports. Our vision is to harness the power of information and technology to make health and care better.
  2. Patients on the list receive advice from the NHS and information is shared with other Government organisations to co-ordinate any other support that may be required, Information of how the data is shared is available here https://digital.nhs.uk/coronavirus/shielded-patient-list#dissemination
  3. The list would not identify every patient using administrative data only, so NHS England (working with the CMO’s team and the Cabinet Office) has devised a process whereby specialist doctors and GPs can add to the list with the most up to date information, and NHS Digital is supporting this.
  4. Please note that this is management information. The term management information describes aggregate information collated and used in the normal course of business to inform operational delivery or the management of organisational performance. The information may be incomplete in places, is not quality assured to the same extent as official statistics and may not necessarily be fully representative.
  5. Only patients with an English CCG are included in this analysis and therefore the number of patients in the CCG data will not be the same as the total number of patients on the SPL.
  6. Only patients with an English local authority are included in this analysis and therefore the number of patients in the LA data will not be the same as the total number of patients on the SPL.
  7. Please note that disclosure rules have been applied to the data so all small numbers between 1 and 7 have been replaced with a '*'. All other sub-national data has been rounded to the nearest 5.
  8. Age bands used are 0 - 18 years, 19 - 69 years and 70 years and older. Age was calculated using the patient's date of birth and the age is calculated as at 15 May 2020. Unknown ages have been removed from this analysis.
  9. Gender is as recorded within the Patient Demographic Service. Unknown genders have been removed from this analysis.
  10. The data that is published is based on the latest version of the SPL clinical algorithm as of 15 May 2020. The algorithm that was used to create the SPL was version 7 and includes those patients that were identified as being on the vulnerable patient list. A cross check with PDS is made after the SPL has been created to remove those patients who have died. A summary of the algorithm used in this analysis is available in the 'SPL algorithm' tab with more detailed information on the SPL available here: https://digital.nhs.uk/coronavirus/shielded-patient-list
  11. HES data, specifically Admitted Patient Care (inpatient) records, was extracted for the period February 1 2018 to February 29 2020 inclusive - with the exception of patients with admission for lung neoplasm and radiotherapy where all records were extracted from 2006 onwards (the point at which ICD-10 coding was introduced for this disease group). Further details regarding HES data and ICD-10 (plus OPCS-4 coding) can be found in the 'HES - Codes' tab in this workbook.
  12. PCPM data was extracted at the time of use from the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) and covered the period 01-September-2019 to 29-February-2020, which represents the latest 6 months of data available for use.
  13. Data up to and including February 2020 was used for MSDS, recognising that given recent changes to how this data is collected, and the data model therein, data quality and coverage is limited.
  14. For media enquiries please contact media@nhsdigital.nhs.net