Swine flu pandemic response

06 September 2009, 11:29am

NHS emergency planners in Bristol and the Avon region have developed their swine flu pandemic response strategy with spatial data from Dotted Eyes. The work involves four primary care trusts and is designed to coordinate the distribution of antiviral stocks in the event of a major disease outbreak. Dotted Eyes data has been used to identify the optimum number and locations of antiviral collection points based on population statistics and travel times to community pharmacies. As a direct result of the GIS support, the emergency planners have agreed the need and locations of several additional centres to bolster capacity. BELOW IS A DETAILED INSIGHT INTO THE BROADER ISSUE.

Spatial data proves its worth in swine flu pandemic planning

NHS emergency planners in Bristol and the Avon region are developing their swine flu pandemic response strategy with spatial data from a national agreement supplied by Dotted Eyes.

The work involves four primary care trusts and follows Department of Health guidance on the need to co-ordinate the distribution of antiviral stocks in the event of a major disease outbreak.

It’s a prime example of the power of GIS to support vital strategic decisions on resource priorities in the NHS.

Dotted Eyes data has been used to identify the optimum number and locations of antiviral collection points. Key factors are population statistics and travel times to community pharmacies.

The work has been carried out by the Avon IM&T Consortium, a shared technology resource serving the region’s primary care trusts. Within the trusts, the consortium supports doctors, dentists, opticians and pharmacies. It also has strong links with hospitals, the South West Strategic Health Authority and local authorities such as Bristol City Council.

For the swine flu work, the consortium’s GIS Manager Trevor Foster took the geographic spread of proposed collection points and performed travel time analysis using the TrafficMap road network dataset derived from NAVTEQ data.

“We determined drive times using road speed parameters in conjunction with RouteFinder software and the TrafficMap transport network, says Trevor. “We were able to generate zones to identify how accessible the collection points were from the road network. That has allowed us to see where there is a need for more centres.”

As a direct result of the GIS support, the emergency planners have agreed the need and locations of several additional centres to bolster capacity in the Avon region. Overall capability will now include community pharmacies, hospitals and other NHS sites.

As well as TrafficMap, the GIS analysis has involved the postcode point product MailerMap and various scales of Dotted Eyes raster mapping as well as MagnaMap 1: 10,000 scale boundary data.

The mapping datasets are available to healthcare organisations across England through the NHS Digital Mapping Agreement, a centralised agreement between Dotted Eyes and the NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care.

The agreement is designed to support the strategic planning, delivery and analysis of health services over a four-year period.

It is open to hundreds of healthcare organisations across England including primary care trusts, strategic health authorities, NHS trusts and all 11 English ambulance trusts.

It covers a wide portfolio of products split into two categories: backdrop raster data and more interactive vector mapping. These products are derived from Ordnance Survey and NAVTEQ datasets.

Avon IM & T Consortium currently uses the following across its activities: street level PlannerMap, 1: 50,000 scale Rangermap and 1: 250,000 scale TourerMap raster data, TrafficMap road network data, the MailerMap postcode dataset, the PlaceMap place names dataset, 1: 10,000 MagnaMap administrative boundary data and 1: 50,000 MidiMap vector data.

As well as swine flu pandemic preparations, the Avon consortium is using data from the agreement for a series of other initiatives including:

• monitoring the spread of patient registration at GP surgeries and reviewing surgery catchment areas
• analysing pharmacy services and the likely impact on the structure of provision in an area when applications are made to set up new pharmacies or change the location of existing ones.
• supporting the production of quarterly monitoring reports on dental provision
• facilitating travel time analysis to inform the options available for reviewing cardiac and stroke services at A & E departments
• supporting practice-based commissioning by illustrating the distribution of hospital patients attending for elective, non-elective and outpatient treatment
• informing a health promotion project designed to encourage more women in Bristol to take up appointments for breast screening
• guiding epidemiological analysis by showing in map form how hospital activity data is influenced by long-term neurological conditions.

For more information on the NHS Digital Mapping Agreement, see also http://www.ic.nhs.uk/statistics-and-data-collections/population-and-geography/nhs-digital-mapping-agreement or email pop.geog@ic.nhs.uk.

www.dottedeyes.com

Click here to read the full Dotted Eyes case study ‘Planning for swine flu: a case study from Avon IM&T Consortium’.

More information on the NHS Digital Mapping Agreement

By Andrew Brittan

Spatial Data Consultant, Dotted Eyes