COVID-19 Wider Impacts - Out of Hours Cases

Novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is a new strain of coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, China. Clinical presentation may range from mild-to-moderate illness to pneumonia or severe acute respiratory infection.

The COVID-19 pandemic has wider impacts on individuals’ health, and their use of healthcare services, than those that occur as the direct result of infection. Reasons for this may include:

• Individuals being reluctant to use health services because they do not want to burden the NHS or are anxious about the risk of infection.

• The health service delaying preventative and non-urgent care such as some screening services and planned surgery.

• Other indirect effects of interventions to control COVID-19, such as mental or physical consequences of distancing measures.

This dataset provides information on trend data regarding the wider impact of the pandemic on Primary Care Out of Hours cases. The Primary Care Out of Hours service provides urgent access to a nurse or doctor, when needed at times outside normal general practice hours, such as evenings, overnight or during the weekend. An appointment to the service is normally arranged following contact with NHS 24.

The recent trend data is shown by age group, sex and broad deprivation category (SIMD). Information is also available at different levels of geographical breakdown such as Health Boards, Health and Social Care partnerships, and Scotland totals.

This data is also available on the COVID-19 Wider Impact Dashboard. Additional data sources relating to this topic area are provided in the Links section of the Metadata below. Information on COVID-19, including stay at home advice for people who are self-isolating and their households, can be found on NHS Inform.

All publications and supporting material to this topic area can be found in the weekly COVID-19 Statistical Report. The date of the next release can be found on our list of forthcoming publications.

Data og ressourcer

Yderligere info

Felt Værdi
Kilde PHS GP OOH Datamart
Forfatter Public Health Scotland
Last Updated Oktober 5, 2023, 09:50 (BST)
Oprettet Maj 25, 2020, 15:27 (BST)
Contact Address Public Health Scotland, Gyle Square, 1 South Gyle Crescent, Edinburgh EH12 9EB
Subject COVID-19 Impact, Unscheduled Care
Frequency Monthly
Time frame of data and timeliness Information is provided on different topics as quickly as possible, given the different time lags that apply to different national data sources. For example, Public Health Scotland receives information on patients attending Accident & Emergency within days; but there can be a delay of at least six weeks before we receive detailed information on patients discharged from hospital after having a baby.
Coverage Data covering all of Scotland. Figures exclude cases within any of the COVID-19 hubs or assessment centres and relate only to cases concerning non-COVID issues.
Completeness These data exclude cases within any of the COVID-19 hubs or assessment centres and relate only to cases concerning non-COVID -19 issues.
Accuracy PHS monitor the quality of unscheduled care data closely, contacting health boards as required. Figures are compared to previously published data and expected trends.
Continuity of data Data are comparable for the whole period included.
Concepts and definitions Please see the Weekly COVID-19 Report (Link 1)
Disclosure Disclosure control methods have been applied to the data in order to protect patient confidentiality.
Revision statement Figures contained within each publication may be subject to change in future releases as submissions may be updated to reflect a more accurate and complete set of data. An issue with previously published 2018 and 2019 baseline Out of Hours (OOH) data was identified and has now been corrected. OOH figures from January 2018 to 22nd March 2020 had previously referred to numbers of consultations whereas those presented after 23rd March referred to numbers of cases. A correction has been applied to ensure that the full time series is now based on numbers of OOH cases. The impact of this revision is modest and does not materially affect interpretation of the changes observed in post-pandemic activity. At a national level adjusting the baseline data has resulted in a reduction in the baseline OOH figure of approximately 10% (1,600). The post-pandemic reductions in OOH activity previously reported were also over-estimated by around 6% each week, and this has now been corrected. The impact of the data revisions at a sub-national level may vary.
Official statistics designation Management Information Statistics
Relevance and key uses of the statistics The data are used to describe the current impact and the severity of COVID-19 in Scotland. Such information allows comparison with prior influenza seasons and with current activity across the UK, Europe and globally.
Format csv
Sprog English
Links

PHS Weekly COVID-19 Report

COVID-19 Wider Impact Dashboard

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