Increase in #Flu & #Covid Hospitalisations

Emergency hospital admissions because of influenza saw an increase, from 133 to 232 in the week ending 17th of December

Vaccinations

In winter 2023/24, Scotland administered 1,607,014 Influenza (Adult 18+), 523,944 Influenza (Children 6 months to 17 years), and 1,351,850 COVID-19 vaccines since September 4, 2023. Among adults 65+, 77.7% got influenza, and 77.0% got COVID-19 vaccines by week 50. Uptake is lower compared to winter 2022/23. – Public Health Scotland

Waste Water Monitoring

Waste water monitoring for RNA continues to show positive readings across Scotland. These are the last published results for the area served by Kirkwall waste water system, 11th December 2023.

Covid-19

For the week ending 17th December 2023 there was an increase in the number of acute COVID-19 admissions to hospital to 258 from 232 the previous week.

In that same period the number of inpatients with COVID-19 in hospital (seven day average) also increased to 404 from 352 the previous week.

Weekly Deaths

Published by National Records of Scotland are the weekly deaths for the week ending 17th December 2023.

The provisional total number of deaths registered in Scotland in week 50 of 2023 (11th December to 17th December) was 1,269 (39 or 3% lower than the 5-year average). There were 26 deaths mentioning COVID-19.

Those figures in more detail.

Deaths involving Covid

• Age 45 – 64: 1 death, female
• Age 65 – 74: 7 deaths, 3 female, 4 male
• Age 75 – 84: 11 deaths, 7 female, 4 male
• Age 85+ : 7 deaths, 4 female, 3 male

There were 26 deaths involving Covid, Covid was the main cause in 14 of them.

There were 4 deaths in Care Homes, 3 at Home/Non-Institutional Setting, and 19 in Hospital.

There were 1,269 deaths due to all causes, 39 lower than the 5 year average. However, there were excess deaths in Dementia/Alzheimer’s + 25, Circulatory + 2, and Other Causes +10.

Data quality at NHS Orkney on Waiting Times

Laura Skaife-Knight, NHS Orkney Chief Executive said:

“In response to some concerns raised about data quality at NHS Orkney, with the agreement of the health board, an External Review was commissioned by Public Health Scotland (PHS).

This review has now concluded and the final Adherence to Waiting Times Guidance in NHS Orkney Report (produced by PHS) and Improvement Plan was today, discussed at NHS Orkney’s Health Board meeting. The Board accepted the recommendations from the PHS Report and approved the associated Improvement Plan.

The overarching finding is that PHS did not find any evidence to suggest that the published waiting times figures for NHS Orkney are incorrect.

There are, however, opportunities for improvements and the following recommendations (in order of importance) were agreed by the NHS Orkney Board so that the robustness of waiting times data can be further strengthened, spanning three key areas, notably (1) governance, (2) leadership and (3) digital.

Recommendations:

1. The department would benefit from having a senior position (Band 7/8) with a data and intelligence background to provide that strategic and technical leadership and direction, join up with other internal departments and externally with colleagues in other health boards.
2. Ensure NHS Orkney’s TrakCare application has appropriate additional functionality made available to support timely data capture. This is especially relevant to the Clinic Outcomes screen to support the timely closure of waiting times records and the new CAPTN questionnaire.
3. Ensure clinical teams are engaged with the waiting times process and take ownership and responsibility for their waiting lists and data at a speciality level.
4. Ensure all processes are documented in Standard Operating Procedures. This should include a new process for tracking all off-island referrals.
5. Explore best practice examples that exist in other health boards with regards to auditing records, waiting times training and guidance for staff and whether these could be adopted across NHS Orkney.
6. Develop clear data governance structure and escalation routes and communicate to all staff.
7. Undertake a review of job descriptions, roles, and responsibilities across Health Intelligence (HI)/Waiting Times with prospect of allocating additional resource to support the Waiting Times Co-ordinator.
8. Health Intelligence and Waiting Times teams to engage with clinical teams to review and develop reports to ensure they are relevant to the service.
9. Establish ongoing audit of data to ensure quality and adherence to national definitions and guidance. Ideally this should be conducted by another department independent of the Waiting Times team.
10. Review processes for publishing data on NHS Orkney website to ensure transparency and that the Executive Director sign-off process is understood and communicated well.
11. Ensure NHS Orkney has appropriate representation at relevant National Groups.
12. Explore if other NHS organisations can provide support to NHS Orkney to implement any recommendations, expertise or knowledge if that does not exist within NHS Orkney.

I would like to thank PHS for working in collaboration with us so that we can seek the assurance we need regarding the accuracy of our waiting times and to inform further improvements in this important area.

You can access the full report here, section 12.2.1,NHS Orkney Public Health Scotland Data Quality Review and NHS Orkney’s Improvement Plan here, section 12.2, NHS Orkney Data Quality Improvement Plan

Progress against our Improvement Plan will be overseen by NHS Orkney’s Audit and Risk Committee.”

Fiona Grahame