Public Health Rapid, Emergency, Disease and Syndromic Surveillance System

The NSW Public Health Rapid, Emergency, Disease and Syndromic Surveillance (PHREDSS) system provides daily monitoring of most unplanned presentations to NSW public hospital emergency departments and all emergency Triple Zero (000) calls to NSW Ambulance. Emergency hospital presentations and ambulance calls are grouped into related acute illness and injury categories. The number of presentations and calls in each category is monitored over time to quickly identify unusual patterns of illness. Unusual patterns could signify an emerging outbreak of disease or issue of public health importance in the population. PHREDSS is also useful for monitoring the impact of seasonal and known disease outbreaks, such as seasonal influenza or gastroenteritis, on the NSW population.

The PHREDSS system surveillance reports use Rapid Emergency Department Data for Surveillance (REDDS) for the first 90 days of data and Emergency Department Records for Epidemiology (EDRE) for historical data.