Where can I find official UK data and reports on flu vaccine status of hospitalised patients (PHE/UKHSA NHS)?
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Executive summary
For official UK data on the flu vaccination status of hospitalised patients you should start with the UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) National flu and COVID‑19 surveillance reports, which publish weekly hospitalisation rates, vaccine uptake and early vaccine effectiveness estimates (see weekly reports and the National flu and COVID‑19 surveillance series) [1] and [2]. NHS England also publishes hospital occupancy and counts of patients in hospital with flu and keeps running summaries of vaccine delivery numbers (for example, daily averages and national vaccination totals) [3] and [4].
1. Where the official primary reports live — UKHSA surveillance bulletins
UKHSA’s National flu and COVID‑19 surveillance reports are the primary place to find authoritative weekly data on flu hospitalisations, laboratory subtyping and vaccine effectiveness and uptake; recent weekly reports explicitly include “weekly influenza vaccine uptake” and early vaccine effectiveness estimates [1]. The UKHSA surveillance series historically replaced PHE’s flu reports and continues to collate lab and hospital surveillance across the UK [5].
2. NHS England’s operational counts and context
For operational figures — numbers of patients in hospital with flu, daily averages and NHS regional breakdowns — NHS England issues situation statements and regional pages that report hospital occupancy and vaccination delivery totals (for example, NHS England reported an average of 2,660 patients a day in hospital with flu and has published counts of vaccinated patients) [3] and [4]. These NHS releases are the best source for bed‑level pressure and regionally disaggregated counts [3] and [6].
3. What the routine UK sources include on vaccination status of hospital patients
UKHSA weekly surveillance reports combine multiple data streams — laboratory confirmations, primary care consultations and hospital data — and publish vaccine uptake and vaccine effectiveness estimates, which are the standard metrics used to infer protection among those hospitalised [1] and [7]. NHS England’s briefings add counts of vaccinated people in the general programme (vaccines delivered to eligible cohorts) but do not routinely publish person‑level linked hospital records showing each hospital patient’s vaccination status in public dashboards — instead UKHSA presents aggregated rates and VE estimates [1] and [5].
4. Historical and methodological context: PHE → UKHSA and data caveats
Surveillance of vaccine effectiveness and hospitalisation by vaccination status evolved under PHE and continued under UKHSA; UKHSA publishes vaccine surveillance reports and worked with statistics authorities to clarify rates by vaccination status to reduce misinterpretation [8] and [5]. Users should note the reports rely on multiple sources (NIMS, ONS denominators, laboratory networks, hospital returns) and sometimes correct or reissue data (noted in week updates), so trend interpretation requires attention to reporting windows and denominators described in the surveillance PDFs [1] and [9].
5. Practical pointers — exactly where to download the files
Start at the UK government statistics page for “National flu and COVID‑19 surveillance reports” (the weekly surveillance series) and download the most recent PDF/Excel for the week you need — the 27 November 2025 (week 48) report is an example that explicitly reports weekly vaccine uptake and early VE [1]. For hospital occupancy and regional patient counts look to NHS England’s news and data pages, which publish situational statements and regional bulletins [6] and [3].
6. Supplementary and researcher resources
For extracted tables and csvs, third‑party repositories and replication projects can be useful starting points; for example, a GitHub repository collates PHE/UKHSA vaccine surveillance reports and CSVs of rates and denominators which may speed analysis though it is not an official source [10]. Use those only as convenience copies and verify against the original UKHSA/NHS PDFs [10].
7. What the media have been citing — and why it matters
Recent press coverage cites UKHSA and NHS England figures — e.g., hospitalisations rising to a rate of about 10.05 per 100,000 in the week to 7 December and headlines of a 55% week‑on‑week rise — all of which trace back to the weekly UKHSA surveillance releases and NHS England statements [11] and [3]. Journalists rely on UKHSA for VE and uptake and on NHS England for bed pressures; both are needed to understand vaccine impact on hospital demand.
Limitations and next steps: official UKHSA/NHS England publications provide aggregated vaccine uptake and VE and weekly hospital counts but do not publish line‑level hospital case‑by‑case vaccination status in public dashboards; available sources do not mention public release of patient‑level hospital vaccination status (not found in current reporting). If you want machine‑readable tables, download the weekly UKHSA surveillance Excel/PDF from the gov.uk surveillance page and cross‑reference NHS England situation reports and the Green Book chapter and national flu letters for methods and denominators [1] and [12].