What causes NHS primary care services to become busier in the Winter and what can we do about it?

Impact and inequalities of winter pressures in primary care: providing the evidence base for mitigation strategies

Status

Recruiting

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Observational

Source

ISRCTN

Registry ID

ISRCTN98501585

Enrollment

19000000

Registered

2025-02-24

Start date

2024-08-01

Completion date

Unknown

Last updated

2025-03-17

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Understanding pressure on primary and secondary care services within the NHS Other

Interventions

WP 1: We will conduct a comprehensive analysis of winter pressures, including the patient, practice and disease factors that generate them, and use a range of practice-level metrics to identify when p

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

All

Inclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria: We will utilise all available health records accessible through the OpenSafely Platform.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion criteria: Does not meet inclusion criteria

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame
Collected from patient records during the data collection phase: 1. Measures of the onset duration and intensity of pressure experienced in primary and secondary care 2. Measures of the impact of primary care winter pressures for severe health events 3. Development of a risk prediction model for winter pressures 4. Mathematical models of how vaccination can mitigate winter pressures	—

Secondary

Measure	Time frame
There are no secondary outcome measures	—

Countries

United Kingdom

Contacts

Public ContactMichael Marks

michael.marks@lshtm.ac.uk+44 20 7636 8636

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ISRCTN (via WHO ICTRP) · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026