In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, PRSB has published guidance for health and care professionals in collaboration with NHS Digital on how clinical information for COVID-19-related care and treatment should be coded in computer-readable language.

The UK SNOMED CT codes for COVID-19 have been released by NHS Digital. The list has been assembled from a variety of sources to help health and care professionals manage clinical information that improves patient care. It will also support central data collections to help manage the pandemic and aid research and planning.

The professional guidance sets out the Covid-19 clinical information that will be coded in a simple and easy to apply list. This will include testing for coronavirus, diagnosis and treatment. We will be working with clinical colleagues in our member organisations to ensure the information is shared widely and that any feedback about implementation or additional needs for managing the pandemic and its aftermath are met.

During the course of the coming month, we will be asking our members to support us and sharing further updates about this work. We will be holding a webinar on 9 April to discuss this in more depth. If you have any questions or you would like to register your interest to join the webinar, please get in touch by emailing info@theprsb.org.