RSC: Public health data

Introduction

The Oxford Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Research and Surveillance Centre (RSC) has been the primary source for surveillance in England for over 60 years, and it has been collecting data 1957. The core surveillance and vaccine effectiveness work is mainly funded by UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), with other research and surveillance conducted in collaboration with a range of organisations, some working across Europe.

Communicable and respiratory disease reports

The Centre publishes two reports on communicable and respiratory diseases in England and Wales. The weekly communicable and respiratory disease report includes data broken down by region for incidences of influenza-like illness (ILI) and other respiratory diseases, as well as information on environmentally sensitive and water and food-borne disorders. The supplementary report is an early indicator for the rates of the upcoming week.

We are excited to announce that from ISO Week 47 2023 we improved data specificity for Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI). We are now presenting national incidence by region and age bands.

If you would like to receive an email of the weekly brief on communicable and respiratory disease presenting to general practice, please contact practiceenquiries@phc.ox.ac.uk

Influenza Virology Scheme

Every year approximately 300 RSC practices volunteer to take part in the Influenza virology scheme. These practices collect nasopharyngeal samples from patients clinically suspected of having flu. The Centre has carried out this role in collaboration with UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and its predecessor organisations since the early 1990s. Its role is primarily to confirm cases of influenza, but also to look at the impact of other diseases, and to characterise more vulnerable populations. The RSC also support the evaluation of vaccine effectiveness.

RCGP RSC COVID-19 Surveillance

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, we have been working closely with UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and other national bodies to closely monitor and make plans to deal with any situation that may develop in the UK. A vital part of that will be to monitor the number of suspected COVID-19 cases in the community in a timely way. UKHSA has commissioned the RCGP Research Surveillance Centre to incorporate monitoring of COVID-19 into its virology surveillance scheme.

Please also refer to local guidance:

Transparency statement

The Oxford RCGP RSC, through its weekly upload of pseudonymised data, is the principal primary care surveillance system across England. The RSC and the Research Group are co-data controllers of the Disease Surveillance Programme. The information technology, analysis capability, and clinical leadership of the RCGP RSC are based at the Clinical Informatics and Health Outcomes Research Group, University of Surrey (the Research Group) and University of Oxford. The Research Group is compliant with Article 6 of the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR) in the use of personal data, and Article 9 in the use of special category sensitive data (such as health data).

To find out more information about what data are collected, what is the data extraction process, and how data are kept safe, please visit the Clinical informatics website.

Report archive

Annual reports

The Centre publishes an annual report which summarises the trends of communicable and respiratory diseases for the past year in England.

Weekly reports

2024 reports

2023 reports

2022 reports

2021 reports

2020 reports

2019 reports

2018 reports

2017 reports

2016 reports