The data provide past data for the daily updates published at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/trends-in-number-of-people-in-hospital-with-confirmed-or-suspected-covid-19/
Data include:
- number of people tested, and number positive and negative
- numbers of calls to 111 and coronavirus helpline
- number of people in ICU with confirmed or suspected COVID-19
- number of people in hospital with confirmed or suspected COVID-19
- ambulance attendances (total and COVID-19 suspected)
- ambulance conveyances for suspected COVID-19
- delayed discharges
- NHS staff absence related to COVID-19
- number of care homes notifying cases of COVID-19 to date
The information is collected by Scottish Government from local NHS Boards, NHS 24, Scottish Ambulance Service, Care Inspectorate and Health Protection Scotland.
It is Management Information, which is collected and distributed each day in order to support understanding of the progress of the outbreak in Scotland. The information comes from different administrative systems and as such there may be variations in the quality of the data and is subject to revision if new information becomes available.
More information on the individual data sources can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-data-definitions-and-sources/
Notes
-- Calls --
The number of calls to 111 includes all calls to this line, whether or not they relate to COVID-19.
The public are asked to call 111 if they have concerns about other conditions and their GP practice is closed – because of this call volumes may be higher at the weekend when practices are closed.
-- Hospital care --
The data include a snapshot of:
(i) the number of people in ICUs across Scotland with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 (not the number of people admitted to ICU each day). The breakdown of confirmed or suspected was not collected before 26th March.
(ii) the number of people in hospital across Scotland with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 (not the number of people admitted to hospital each day). This figure includes those in ICU. The breakdown of confirmed or suspected was not collected before 26th March.
NHS Boards provide Scottish Government with management information on the numbers of patients in ICU with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 at midnight – this is intended to provide information on patients receiving ICU level 3 care. A small number of NHS Boards have some combined ICU/HDU units and provide information on those units. For example, NHS Tayside had included a standalone HDU in returns before 7 April, these are no longer reported in the figures. The Scottish Government will continue to assess the potential data sources available on COVID-19 patients in receipt of level 3 care.
The number of patients reported each day refers to the number of patients overnight, at midnight on the preceding night.
Where Boards do not provide their overnight data in time for the daily publication, the previous day’s data will be used and highlighted on each occasion. The figure will be revised the subsequent day to include the correct data. Figures may also be revised if Boards discover an error and have to resubmit their data.
Other minor variations in the daily returns from Boards include: (i) No submission was received from NHS Dumfries and Galloway on 18/03/2020 or 19/03/2020.
(ii) On some occasions, NHS Lanarkshire figures were collected at 4pm and not midnight.
(iii) Western Isles are defining ICU as beds where intensive ventilation can take place.
(iv) NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde are not currently able to provide an estimate of suspected cases.
Health Boards started to provide data on the breakdown of suspected and confirmed hospitalisation and ICU patients on the 26 March with all Boards providing this breakdown from 27 March 2020.
-- Ambulance --
The number of attendances is defined as the number of incidents recorded by SAS, where a resource arrived at the scene.
-- Delayed Discharges --
Data are as reported daily (Monday to Friday) to Scottish Government by Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs).
Data for 04/03/2020 represents the Baseline (weekly return).
Updates to past figures can be submitted to HSCPs so some data may be revised in the future.
-- COVID-19 tests --
The data show the number of people tested for COVID-19 across Scotland to date, with a breakdown for negative and positive results. These data refer to the total number of individuals newly tested for COVID-19 each day, and do not include tests done on those who have previously been tested.
Daily results refer to the number of tests in the Health Protection Scotland ECOSS system reported to HPS by the laboratories in the 24 hours from 08:00 to 08:00. Therefore, the number of tests reported each day refers to the number of individuals tested on the day preceding the notification date.
Where labs do not provide their overnight data in time for the daily publication, the testing figures will then be added to the return for the subsequent day. Figures may also be revised if labs discover an error and have to resubmit their data.
It should be noted that testing capacity tends to be lower at weekends, and on public holidays.
-- NHS staff absences --
The data are provided each day by NHS National Services Scotland on behalf of 21 NHS Boards, and by the Scottish Ambulance Service separately. It covers hospitals and community health services, and excludes those working in general practice. Accuracy and completeness are dependent on frontline services and administrators inputting absence data into the NHS Scotland national time and attendance system (SSTS). The figures cover all staff recorded as absent on the system, irrespective of whether they were due to be at work on that particular day. Recording processes vary between Boards and service areas. In particular, the timing of absence recording will vary, and some absences may not be recorded timeously. We will consider whether it is necessary to update the data for previous days where there is a material change in the reported absence due to a delay in recording. We foresee that services will come under increasing pressure and therefore data will be monitored closely. If necessary, publishing of staff absence data may need to be amended or delayed.
-- Adult care homes --
Care Inspectorate are notified of suspected COVID-19 cases by service providers.
Two key metrics are used;
Cumulative figures are counts since data was first reported and will include cases which are no longer active.
Current suspected case figures include only data for which cases are still considered active.
The following notes apply;
- A case is no longer considered active where a person has not exhibited symptoms for 14 days as per Health Protection Scotland advice.
- If no care home residents have exhibited any symptoms for 14 days then this care home is considered to have no current suspected cases.
- Data on current suspected cases is available from 21/04/20.
- For services with current suspected cases on 21/04/20, any care home that has notified the Care Inspectorate of a suspected case in the last 14 days has been counted as having a current suspected case. All care homes that have not yet notified the Care Inspectorate of any cases are assumed to have no cases. In addition, care homes who notified the Care Inspectorate of a suspected case at some point but have not reported any further cases in the past 14 days have been contacted by inspectors on the 21/04/20 to record whether the care home still has a current suspected case.
- From 22/04/20 onwards, the Care Inspectorate have set-up a new notification for care homes to report when they no longer have a suspected case in their service. This mechanism will used for reporting going forward.
Cases are self-reported by care providers and should be considered suspected COVID-19. Some cases may subsequently have a formal positive test, other cases after testing may prove not to be COVID-19 and some cases will not be tested.
It is possible not all cases have been reported by all care homes, or there may be a delay in reporting.
All data are based on the date notified to the Care Inspectorate rather than the date of the event, and there may be a lag between these dates. Larger increases tend to occur the first few days of the week as many care homes do not report over the weekend.
The Care Inspectorate provided revised data for 15/04/20, previously shown as 470 but revised on 17/04/20 to 444.
The Care Inspectorate provided revised data for 18/04/20, previously shown as 459 but revised on 20/04/20 to 462.
-- Deaths –
The data are reported each day by Health Protection Scotland (HPS). This is a cumulative total of deaths since the start of the pandemic in Scotland.
It includes deaths which have been registered with National Records of Scotland (NRS) where a laboratory confirmed report of COVID-19 in the 28 days prior to death exists.
The daily total is simply an update of the data described above/previously, using the latest daily information received from NRS to check where a laboratory positive report for COVID-19 exists. These data include all deaths in individuals with laboratory confirmed COVID-19 in Scotland and therefore includes deaths in hospitals, care homes and the community.
This daily number of new deaths registered will not necessarily equal the number of deaths on a particular day, owing to the time allowed for families to register deaths. Numbers of registrations are also lower at weekends.
Please note that NRS provide a weekly report of all deaths where COVID-19 is mentioned on the death certificate (not just confirmed by a test). The NRS report provides information by age, sex and place of death. It also provides a full explanation of the difference between the two measures and it is available from the NRS website. Data are also available on this statistics.gov.scot.
Next update due
Daily
Confidentiality Policy
This dataset does not contain any sensitive or personal information. Individual people’s details are not named.
Accessibility and Clarity
This information around COVID-19 is published each day on the Scottish Government website https://www.gov.scot/publications/trends-in-number-of-people-in-hospital-with-confirmed-or-suspected-covid-19/.
Quality Management
This is an evolving situation. These data are management information and as such could be subject to revisions, as more evidence becomes available. Given the public interest and need for this information, it is important that the data are made publicly available as quickly as possible.
Relevance
These data are vital for informing health services and other public and private sector organisations, and the general public as a whole as to the spread of the COVID-19 disease across Scotland.
Accuracy and Reliability
This dataset gathers together information as published on https://www.gov.scot/publications/trends-in-number-of-people-in-hospital-with-confirmed-or-suspected-covid-19/.
Timeliness and Punctuality
The latest numbers will be published shortly after 2pm each day.
Coherence and Comparability
The Department of Health and Social Care publishes UK figures on behalf of all UK Chief Medical Officers. Test results from Scotland are included in the overall UK figure.
Revisions
These data are management information. The spread of COVID-19 is an evolving situation and data are being produced quickly. There is therefore a chance that the data may need to be revised.