SPL Inclusions
+ All patients that have been identified by GPs and hospital doctors
+ All patients identified using the clinical algorithm
+ All patients aged 19 - 69 years identified in the COVID-19 Population Risk Assessment using QCovid® methodology
SPL Exclusions
- All patients where a GP or hospital doctor tells us that a person is not clinically extremely vulnerable have been removed
- All patients who have specifically asked to be removed from the list have been removed
- All deceased patients were removed using PDS – accepting one or both of the “informal” and “formal” notification of death flags
- This data does not include those patients that have self-referred on the SPL.
Data Caveats
If a patient is added or deducted by both a GP and hospital, it is the latest request that is reported and this takes precedence over the algorithm.
This analysis has exclusions at each level of geography meaning that the totals across CCG and Local Authority may not be the same and may not match the total number of patients shown above.
CCG data only includes those patients who are resident in an English CCG. Non-English and invalid/unknown CCGs are excluded.
Local Authority data only include those patients who are resident in English local authorities. Non-English and invalid/unknown local authorities are excluded.
Initially, there were 13 disease groups, as defined in the SPL clinical methodology, that were signed off by the Chief Medical Officer (CMO). These disease groups were assigned to patients using the clinical methodology but could also be assigned when a patient was added by a GP or hospital doctor.
As more evidence becomes available about which people are more likely to become seriously unwell as a consequence of COVID-19 infection, the UK Chief Medical Officers continuously review the conditions of "high risk" criteria.
In version 36 of the SPL, the UK CMO instructed that two new disease groups be included in the “high risk” criteria (Adult patient with Down’s syndrome; Adult patients with kidney impairment (Stage 5 Chronic Kidney Disease)). Adult patients with these two conditions were identified and added to the SPL by their GP or hospital specialist. The national methodology was also updated to identify patients with these conditions.
In version 44 of the SPL, following a COVID-19 Population Risk Assessment using QCovid® methodology, the SPL has further increased. The QCovid® methodology is an algorithm used to identify clinically extremely vulnerable individuals who are at an increased risk of serious illness of COVID-19 based on known risk factors (age, sex assigned at birth, height and weight (used to calculate Body Mass Index (BMI)), ethnicity, and some medical conditions known to have increased risk relating to coronavirus). QCovid® estimates an individual's combined risk of catching coronavirus, being admitted to hospital, and dying from the disease.
Data cannot, and should not, be summed across disease groups. A patient can be in multiple disease groups, therefore the number of patients on the list will not equal the sum of patients within each disease group.
In order to protect patient confidentiality '*' appears in the table above for all sub-national breakdowns, where it is possible to calculate a value between 1 and 7 from the data presented. All other sub-national data has been rounded to the nearest 5. For the purposes of disclosure control some local authorities have been combined to create larger areas. These are: Cornwall and Isles of Scilly; Hackney and City of London
