Project #85:
FLUCATS

The use of triage tools during surge and mass casualty events is recommended in national guidance. The need for such tools was identified again in preparation for the recent Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The evidence base for this guidance was challenged by GPs at the RCGP Pandemic Flu Summit in March 2010. GPs questioned the extent to which they as a group had been involved in the development of the tools. GPs were also concerned that there is little data supporting use of such tools in primary care.

This study aims to validate a previously developed triage tool (for pandemic influenza) called FLUCATs (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0075384) on patients with COVID-19 . This study will test how well the FLUCATs test how parts of a general practitioner’s questions and assessment of children and adults with COVID-19 like illness can predict who: can safely be kept at home; need hospital admission; need high dependency or intensive care; are most at-risk of dying.