Chief Clinical Information Officer for Health and Care and Deputy CEO for NHSX Simon Eccles, commented on Twitter yesterday to state plans being in place to understand the numbers of those self-isolating in specific regions.
Speaking on the plan, Simon said “We are doing this. We need to know how many people are self-isolating by region – and we need some information about their health.”
“Should be sorted soon and will prove really helpful in predicting demand as numbers increase.”
Yesterday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock, when speaking on BBC news said every member of the public over the age of 70 will be instructed to stay at home “within the coming weeks.”
Matt Hancock also stated that self-isolation for the over 70s demographic will have them stay indoors for “a very long time.”
We are doing this. We need to know how many people are self isolating by region – and some info about their health. Should be sorted soon – and will prove really helpful in predicting demand as numbers increase. Thank you https://t.co/trTKx4tuSF
— Simon Eccles (@NHSCCIO) March 15, 2020
On Simon Eccles’ tweet, some commenters made suggestions about how to collect the data on those self-isolating:
“I think a possible answer is an online NHS survey, recording age and postcode, for anyone self-isolating but not contacting 111. This would help to identify trends and hotspots.”Another commenter said “could you get National Data Guardian to grant NE and Cumbria GPs legal cover to enable record sharing into our new HIE for the 2-3% of folks who were concerned about care data?”
Some other commenters expressed the need for simplicity in recording the data:
“This needs to be really simple and come as part of the PHE/Gov.UK pages for the public to fill in.”
“It needs to be national not locally led/collated to avoid ambiguity and interpretation.”
