Surveillance

Over 2000 practices in England are contributing pseudonymised data for national research and surveillance. These data enable continuous monitoring of infections and diseases in the community and is used in ethically approved research. The Oxford Royal College of General Practitioners Research and Surveillance Centre (Oxford-RCGP RSC) is the main source of information for UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and helps with prediction and management of flu outbreaks and pandemics.

The pseudonymised data, extracted by our third-party data providers (Magentus and Optum), are processed within the private and secure network of ORCHID, within the University of Oxford under a formal data sharing agreement. The pseudonymised data may be linked with other NHS data for analysis, including hospital episode statistics.

Practice data is used to produce a weekly Communicable and Respiratory Disease Report which reports on 40 monitored conditions. This report can be accessed through the link below.

What the University of Oxford provides to UKHSA for surveillance

• Management of a network of practices representative of at least 30% of patients registered at GP practices within England
• Management of virology and serology samples from patients presenting with ARI symptoms to GP practices
• Weekly Linked Virology Dataset
• Weekly Morbidity Data
• Weekly Syndromic Surveillance
• Weekly Reports including a public facing report, published on RCGP’s website - Communicable and respiratory disease reports
• Weekly updated virology and serology dashboards – Dashboards and Observatories
• Quarterly Serology Dataset
• Annual: Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness Dataset
• Annual reports for UKHSA - Infectious diseases impacting England: 2025 report
   and RCGP - Annual Reports
• Ad Hoc Data Extracts

Since the early 1990s, Oxford-RCGP RSC network practices have volunteered to take part in yearly influenza virology surveillance, in collaboration with UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). With the introduction of the COVID-19 pandemic this work has since broadened to encompass other respiratory viruses, such as influenza, COVID-19 and Respiratory Syncytial Virus.

Participating practices assist the network by collecting nasopharyngeal samples from patients clinically suspected of having a respiratory virus. Results are then linked to pseudonymised clinical data. Its primary role is to confirm these cases, but also to look at the impact of other diseases, to characterise more vulnerable populations, and to support in the evaluation of vaccine effectiveness. Most interest is currently on how age, gender, ethnicity, household size, and population density link to rates of infection.

A serological surveillance arm has also been rolled-out, which contributes important and timely data on background population immunity to respiratory illnesses, and vaccine effectiveness.

If you are a sampling practice or a patient please see the Information & Posters resources on our Information for Patients page.