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RETIRED - shielded patient list identification methodology Version 1

Publication date :

Summary

This document describes the methodology that has been used to identify patients who meet the high risk criteria for contracting coronavirus (COVID-19), due to their inclusion in one or more of the disease groups as outlined in table 1.

The list of conditions that defined this cohort was signed off by the Chief Medical Officers of the four nations of the UK on 18 March 2020 and is listed in this document. 

Published March 2020  Version 1.0

Retired version

This version of the algorithm is now retired and has been replaced. See the latest version.

Important notice

Application of this algorithm to personal data or special category personal data must be lawful under the common law duty of confidence and GDPR and must also be ethical. Failure to comply with the common law duty of confidence and the GDPR could lead to enforcement action being taken against you by the Information Commissioner. Please ensure you therefore have a lawful basis to apply this algorithm to an relevant personal data or special category data that you hold, and that any processing you carry out in connection with this algorithm is otherwise lawful under GDPR and any other relevant data protection laws.

The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for England, working with the CMOs of the devolved nations and other senior clinicians, commissioned NHS Digital to produce a list of  people at “high risk” of complications from COVID-19, who should be shielded for at least 12 weeks.

This list is referred to as the Shielded Patient List (SPL). The “high risk” list was defined as a subset of a wider group of people who may be “at risk”.

Specific advice applies to these groups, currently this advice is:

  1. “At Risk” – large group (circa 19 million) normally at risk from the flu - should practice strict social distancing
  2. “At high risk” – a smaller sub-group (circa 1.5 million), defined by CMO – should practice complete social “shielding”

Published March 2020  Version 1.0

Last edited: 13 June 2020 2:39 pm

Publication chapters

  1. RETIRED - shielded patient list identification methodology Version 1

  2. RETIRED Background V1
  3. RETIRED Dataset usage V1
  4. RETIRED Rule logic V1
  1. RETIRED Medicines data V1
  2. RETIRED Assurance V1
  3. RETIRED Annexes V1
  4. RETIRED Amendment history V1