Are the NHS making no attempt to record suspected cases?

[TooTrueToBeGood]

So yesterday around lunchtime I started to get a fairly regular dry cough and my breathing felt shallow. Within a few hours I was feeling feverish and I've had an absolutely miserable night. Today is my first day off sick from work in about 10 years as I work from home and usually reckon I'm as well working and feeling poorly as not.

So I have been trawling various NHS websites to see if I'm meant to notify anyone. Now to be clear. I am not panicking as I am in very good health otherwise. I'm not looking to be tested or treated, I'm happy to self-isolate and ride it out. I just thought that it would make sense for them to be tracking probable cases. Even if they have to allow for quite a high margin of error, given that they are not doing routine testing, surely that's sensible? If I am symptomatic yet not included in any stats how many others are likely to be? If that is the case we really don't have the faintest idea how aggressively (or not) this is spreading, where the hotspots are or what the likely % of serious cases actually is.

I agree with you that it’s Astounding this isn’t being actively tracked. Apparently widespread testing is too much to ask but I don’t believe that it’s impossible to set up a simple online questionnaire for people who suspect they’ve had it.

No they are not recording.

Estimated total cases sill be extrapolated from actual confirmed cases. There is no resource to do otherwise yet.

Hope you get well soon though!

They are very slightly busy rearranging wards, discharging patients and ringing up vast amounts of people to cancel non urgent appointments. They know what’s on the horizon and it’s not good. Recording possible cases is not top of the list of things to do. The cats out of the bag and all hell is about to be let loose. The public are not following instructions and if you didn’t here Nicola Sturgeon yesterday she made it quite clear that treatment will be rationed. I hate the woman but impressed that she told the truth.
They have made it quite clear. STAY AT HOME AND ONLY CONTACT NHS111 IF YOU ARE GOING DOWNHILL FAST.

So I have been trawling various NHS websites to see if I'm meant to notify anyone.

I was was wondering why 111 actually needed to leave an automated message urging people NOT to call them to inform them that they are self isolating. I guess this is why! I thought it would be obvious not to block the phone line over this, but I guess common sense isn’t common.

I’m just being honest, the NHS is extremely busy right now. They don’t have the resources to deal with tracking suspected cases because they are soon to be overwhelmed by severe confirmed cases. They don’t need to know that you’re self isolating or that you have symptoms.

Speaking as a paediatrician current guidelines mean that about 90% of children meet criteria for suspected COVID 19. Fever and changes to breathing is basic paediatrics. We are therefore having to treat most of our population as suspected cases. Even though we don't really think they have it. We're getting very few positive tests and we know there are a lot of other similar viruses going around. Looking at our suspected cases would be useless.
The NHS are keeping track of tests and this know how many negative Vs positive results there are.

I was was wondering why 111 actually needed to leave an automated message urging people NOT to call them to inform them that they are self isolating. I guess this is why! I thought it would be obvious not to block the phone line over this, but I guess common sense isn’t common.

WTF are you on about? How do you equate me browsing websites with wasting 111 time? I never said I wanted to speak to a human and have made no attempt to do so. Learn to read before you jump to try and belittle people.

I'd assumed that 111 had collated my postcode/date of birth with my symptoms when I went on the symtom checker. But it probably all went in the bin.

Surely that would be a waste of resources? It could be anything (including people making false notifications to create panic).