COVID-19 Hospital Activity

A number of data collections have been implemented to support incident management. The collections were activated at short notice and the content of the collections has evolved as the incident has developed. The data collected is classified as management information. It has been collected on a daily basis with a tight turn round time.  Any analysis of the data should be undertaken with this in mind.

From 1 June 2023 we made changes to the COVID data that we collect from acute trusts. This means that some data items were removed from COVID publications from this date. These were:

    • Three of the COVID admission measures
    • Patients in MV beds (both COVID and non-COVID)
    • G&A and critical care beds (both unoccupied and occupied with non-COVID patients)
    • Covid patients discharged from hospital

From 1st April 2024, further reductions in the data collected mean that the following items will also be removed from the publication.

  • Confirmed COVID-19 patients who are being treated primarily for COVID-19
  • Age breakdowns of COVID admissions and diagnoses

Publication Definitions (PDF, 513KB)

The methodology for construction of the admissions measures is outlined in the PDF document below:

Daily Admissions Publication Note (PDF, 754KB)

Monthly publication of COVID-19 data

The monthly publication is published on the 2nd Thursday each month and includes England, regional and trust level data on the following:

  • patients in hospital with Covid
  • patients admitted to hospital with Covid
  • patients diagnosed in hospital with Covid
  • total reported Covid admissions to hospital and diagnoses in hospital (a calculated metric combining admissions and diagnosis as per the Daily Admissions Publication Note above)
  • staffing absences (split by all absences and Covid related absences)

Data quality notes:

  • Data quality notes for the periods prior to 1 October 2022 are viewable within the historical Monthly COVID Publication files below. Any such notes from 1 October 2022 are viewable within the Weekly publication paragraphs below.

Monthly COVID Publication up to 31 July 2020 (XLSX, 5.5MB)

Monthly COVID Publication from 1 August 2020 up to 6 April 2021 (XLSX, 12MB)

Monthly COVID Publication from 7 April 2021 up to 30 September 2021 (XLSX, 8MB)

Monthly COVID Publication from 1 October 2021 up to 31 March 2022 (XLSX, 8.5MB)

Monthly COVID Publication from 1 April 2022 up to 30 September 2022 (XLSX, 8.7MB)

Monthly COVID Publication 1 October 2022 up to 31st May 2023 (XLSX, 10MB)

Monthly COVID Publication March 2024 (XLSX, 6.8MB)

 

Weekly publication of COVID-19 admissions and bed occupancy data

Please note that the final weekly COVID update will be on Thursday 4 April 2024 covering the week ending Sunday 31 March 2024. Covid data will continue to be published monthly, with data for April released on Thursday 9 May 2024.

The weekly publication includes England, regional and trust level data on the following:

  • total reported Covid admissions to hospital and diagnoses in hospital (a calculated metric combining admissions and diagnosis as per the Daily Admissions Publication Note above)
  • patients in hospital with Covid
  • adult G&A beds occupied by Covid patients
  • adult Critical Care beds occupied by Covid patients
  • patients in hospital with Covid (in acute trusts only, at England and regional level only)
  • patients in hospital with Covid who are being treated primarily for Covid (in acute trusts only, at England and regional level only)

The file provides trust level information from 1 August 2020 up to the latest week.  The methodology for construction of these measures at trust level is the same at regional and national level (see PDF above).

Data quality notes:

    • Data quality notes for the periods prior to 1 June 2023 are viewable within the historical Weekly COVID Publication files below.

Weekly Admissions and Beds up to 6 April 2021 (XLSX, 4.0MB)

Weekly Admissions and Beds from 7 April 2021 up to 30 September 2021 (XLSX, 2.6MB)

Weekly Admissions and Beds from 1 October 2021 up to 31 March 2022 (XLSX, 2.6MB)

Weekly Admissions and Beds from 1 April 2022 up to 30 September 2022 (XLSX, 2.5MB)

Weekly Admissions and Beds from 1 October 2022 up to 31 May 2023 (XLSX, 2.8MB)

Weekly Admissions and Beds 14 March 2024 (XLSX, 1.1MB)

Supplementary analysis of confirmed COVID-19 patients who are being treated primarily for COVID-19 can be found in the files below. Note that this covers acute providers only.

The majority of inpatients with Covid-19 are admitted as a result of the infection. A subset of those who contract Covid in the community and are asymptomatic, or exhibited relatively mild symptoms that on their own are unlikely to warrant admission to hospital, will then be admitted to hospital to be treated for something else and be identified through routine testing. However these patients still require their treatment in areas that are segregated from patients without Covid, and the presence of Covid can be a significant co-morbidity in many cases. Equally, while the admission may be due to another primary condition, in many instances this may have been as a result of contracting Covid in the community. For example research has shown that people with Covid are more likely to have a stroke (Stroke Association); in these cases people would be admitted for the stroke, classified as ‘with’ Covid despite having had a stroke as a result of having Covid.

The headline published numbers in publications to date have been “inpatients with confirmed Covid” without differentiating between those in hospital “for” Covid and those in hospital “with” Covid. Recognising the combination of high community infections rates, with the reduced likelihood of admission for those who contract Covid in the community and are fully vaccinated, the Covid SitRep was enhanced in June 2021 to add a requirement for providers to distinguish between those being primarily treated ‘for’ Covid and those ‘with’ Covid but for whom the primary reason for being in hospital was non-Covid related. In practice this distinction is not always clear at the point of admission when the patient’s record has not been fully clinically coded. In light of this, trusts have been asked to provide this “for” and “with” split on a ‘best endeavours’ basis.

Primary Diagnosis Supplement from 18 June 2021 up to 30 September 2021 (XLSX, 28KB)

Primary Diagnosis Supplement from 1 October 2021 up to 31 March 2022 (XLSX, 39KB)

Primary Diagnosis Supplement from 1 April 2022 up to 30 September 2022 (XLSX, 43KB)

Primary Diagnosis Supplement from 1 October 2022 up to 31 May 2023 (XLSX, 46KB)

Please note that from 1 June 2023 the Primary Diagnosis Supplement has been incorporated into the Weekly Admissions and Beds publication above and will no longer appear separately here.

 

Daily publication of COVID-19 admissions and bed occupancy data

This file contains Covid data on measures of hospital admissions and the number of beds occupied by Covid patients and the number of MV beds (beds capable of supporting mechanical ventilation) occupied by Covid patients. It provides regional and national level information from 1 August 2020 up to 31 August 2022.

Please note that, following UKHSA’s decision to pause routine asymptomatic testing due to low prevalence and the government’s decision to reduce the Covid alert level from level 3 to level 2, as from Thursday 1 September 2022 we will no longer be producing a daily publication of COVID-19 admissions and bed occupancy. The current weekly NHS trust level publication will continue to be issued at 09:30 on a Thursday, and the regional and national data currently published daily will appear as a new summary sheet in that weekly publication.

Daily Admissions and Beds up to 6 April 2021 (XLSX, 191KB)

Daily Admissions and Beds from 7 April 2021 up to 30 September 2021 (XLSX, 72KB)

Daily Admissions and Beds from 1 October 2021 up to 31 March 2022 (XLSX, 80KB)

Daily Admissions and Beds from 1 April 2022 up to 31 August 2022 (XLSX, 95KB)

 

Additional Information

The following summary shows the initial data we collected at the start of the pandemic in March 2020. The current collection mechanism commenced on 20 March 2020, but a limited amount of information was collected prior to that on other collection systems. The figures produced in these earlier periods were affected by data completeness.

March 2020 data (XLSX, 12KB)

A supplementary analysis of reported admissions and diagnoses by age category at England level can be found in the file below. Note that this covers acute providers only. This file has been enhanced to include a more granular breakdown of the 18-54 age bands. Please note – publication of this information ceased in June 23, however the more limited admissions and diagnosis age breakdowns in the monthly publication continue to be published.

Admissions Analysis by Age Group Supplement up to 6 April 2021 (XLSX, 23KB)

Admissions Analysis by Age Group Supplement from 7 April 2021 up to 30 September 2021 (XLSX, 22KB)

Admissions Analysis by Age Group Supplement from 1 October 2021 up to 31 March 2022 (XLSX, 30KB)

Admissions Analysis by Age Group Supplement from 1 April 2022 up to 30 September 2022 (XLSX, 31KB)

Admissions Analysis by Age Group Supplement June 2023 (XLSX, 34KB)