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Acute respiratory tract infections daily number of NHS 111 triaged calls 7 day moving average

Last updated on Thursday, 20 March 2025 at 01:26pm

Summary

Topic
acute-respiratory-infection
Category
syndromic
API name
acute-respiratory-infection_syndromic_NHS111triagedcalls_averageRolling7Day

Rationale

Monitoring trends in the daily number of calls triaged by the NHS 111 medical telephone help and advice line can provide an early warning of human public health threats requiring public health action. The 7-day moving average helps us identify any trends in the data by smoothing day-to-day variation.

Definition

The metric shows the 7-day moving average of daily numbers of NHS 111 triaged calls made by or for people with symptoms of acute respiratory infections, across England.

Methodology

The 7-day moving average is calculated by taking the average of the 3 days prior to, day of and the 3 days after, a given day. This metric is adjusted for highs and lows in the data that may arise from variation in daily activity caused by weekends and bank holidays.

Acute respiratory infection NHS 111 triaged calls are identified from the Symptom Group selected based on the symptoms described during each call. The Symptom Group selection is based on signs or symptoms of an illness and may not have lab confirmation.

The acute respiratory infections indicator is based on a broad group of symptoms that may be indicative of acute respiratory infections including, for example, influenza-like illness, otitis media (ear infections) and pharyngitis (sore throat).

We receive an automated daily transfer of fully anonymised NHS 111 triaged call data from the NHS 111 Intelligent Data Tool, a repository of data used by NHS England.

Caveats

NHS 111 triaged calls data may not include the most urgent calls which are rapidly redirected to ambulance services.

The syndromic surveillance indicators group together diagnoses made based on signs or symptoms of an illness, there may not be lab confirmation of a diagnosis.

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