GP Connect (Patient Facing) Prescriptions

Error Handling

Refer to the NHS Digital API catalogue entry for GP Connect (Patient Facing) Prescriptions FHIR API details on error handling specific to each endpoint.

As a nationally brokered FHIR® API, the GP Connect error handling approach defined below closely follows the approach of the Spine Core FHIR API Framework.

However, the guidance given below is the definitive error handling definition for the GP Connect (Patient Facing) Appointment Management API and thus the Spine Core error handling guidance should be viewed for context only.

Operation outcome usage

In the event of an error, provider systems SHALL respond by providing an OperationOutcome resource profiled to FHIR R4 Operation Outcome.

The GPConnect-OperationOutcome-1:

• SHALL contain a definition of severity in the OperationOutcome.issue.severity field providing a value from the valueset-issue-severity value set. In all cases described in this guidance, the value used will be error.
• SHALL contain a definition of the type of error in the OperationOutcome.issue.code element, providing a value from the issue-type value set.
• SHALL contain details of the Spine error code in the OperationOutcome.issue.details.coding.code and OperationOutcome.issue.details.coding.display fields. These shall be taken from the standard set of NHS Spine error codes as defined in the spine-error-or-warning-code-1 value set. The Spine error and warning codes provide a greater degree of error handling granularity, and also ensure a standardised error handling approach across NHS APIs.
• SHOULD provide additional diagnostic details of the error in the OperationOutcome.diagnostics property where such details securely provide additional error context for consumer applications.

The sections below provide guidance on the error details to be returned in a number of key scenarios.

Identity validation errors

Provider systems SHALL respond by returning one of the following OperationOutcome error codes where FHIR resource identity error scenarios are encountered:

Example: Invalid NHS number supplied

If an invalid NHS number value is supplied to one of the GET endpoints, the following error details would be returned:

{
  "resourceType": "OperationOutcome",
  "meta": {
    "profile": [
      "https://fhir.hl7.org.uk/StructureDefinition/UKCore-OperationOutcome"
    ]
  },
  "issue": [
    {
      "severity": "error",
      "code": "value",
      "details": {
        "coding": [
          {
            "system": "https://fhir.nhs.uk/R4/ValueSet/Spine-ErrorOrWarningCode-1",
            "code": "INVALID_NHS_NUMBER",
            "display": "Invalid NHS number"
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

Example: Resource not found

This is a catch-all where a request for a resource instance cannot be found at the FHIR server, where more specific Spine error codes (such as PATIENT_NOT_FOUND) cannot be used.

{
  "resourceType": "OperationOutcome",
  "meta": {
    "profile": [
      "https://fhir.hl7.org.uk/StructureDefinition/UKCore-OperationOutcome"
    ]
  },
  "issue": [
    {
      "severity": "error",
      "code": "not-found",
      "details": {
        "coding": [
          {
            "system": "https://fhir.nhs.uk/R4/ValueSet/Spine-ErrorOrWarningCode-1",
            "code": "NO_RECORD_FOUND",
            "display": "No record found"
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

Security validation errors

When responding to consumer API requests, provider systems SHALL return one of the following OperationOutcome details when enforcement of local consent rules result in an error condition:

Example: Access denied

{
  "resourceType": "OperationOutcome",
  "meta": {
    "profile": [
      "https://fhir.hl7.org.uk/StructureDefinition/UKCore-OperationOutcome"
    ]
  },
  "issue": [
    {
      "severity": "error",
      "code": "forbidden",
      "details": {
        "coding": [
          {
            "system": "https://fhir.nhs.uk/R4/ValueSet/Spine-ErrorOrWarningCode-1",
            "code": "ACCESS_DENIED",
            "display": "Access denied"
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

Duplicate errors

When responding to consumer API requests, provider systems SHALL return one of the following OperationOutcome details when a resource could not be created or updated because it would cause a duplicate in the provider system:

Example: Attempting to send a prescription request that already exists

If the consumer attempted to send a prescription request that already exists on the provider system the error details would be returned:

{
  "resourceType": "OperationOutcome",
  "meta": {
    "profile": [
      "https://fhir.nhs.uk/STU3/StructureDefinition/GPConnect-OperationOutcome-1"
    ]
  },
  "issue": [
    {
      "severity": "error",
      "code": "duplicate",
      "details": {
        "coding": [
          {
            "system": "https://fhir.nhs.uk/STU3/ValueSet/Spine-ErrorOrWarningCode-1",
            "code": "DUPLICATE_REJECTED",
            "display": "Create would lead to creation of duplicate resource"
          }
        ]
      },
      "diagnostics": "Task resource already exists with that id"
    }
  ]
}

Resource validation errors

Where FHIR resource validation issues arise during processing of consumer requests, provider systems SHALL utilise one the following error details:

Detailed diagnostic information MUST be supplied when erroring on the codes above.

INVALID_PARAMETER would be used in the following, or similar, scenarios:

• an invalid date/time value specified in the query parameters - for example, a date in the future for an authoredOn patamater

INVALID_RESOURCE would be used in situations such as the following:

• resource fails to validate against StructureDefinition (either in request body or in JSON Web Tokens (JWT) claim)
• a resource fails to be processed because of a FHIR constraint, or other rule application, where the error is not already covered by other error codes

REFERENCE_NOT_FOUND describes a scenario where a consumer POSTs a FHIR resource which contains a FHIR reference that cannot be found.

Example: Reference not found

When using the 'Request a repeat prescription' API use case, a consumer includes a reference to a MedicationRequest which does not exist at the server. The following error details would be returned:

{
  "resourceType": "OperationOutcome",
  "meta": {
    "profile": [
      "https://fhir.hl7.org.uk/StructureDefinition/UKCore-OperationOutcome"
    ]
  },
  "issue": [
    {
      "severity": "error",
      "code": "invalid",
      "details": {
        "coding": [
          {
            "system": "https://fhir.nhs.uk/R4/ValueSet/Spine-ErrorOrWarningCode-1",
            "code": "REFERENCE_NOT_FOUND",
            "display": "FHIR reference not found"
          }
        ]
      },
      "diagnostics": "Reference to MedicationRequest/b269d1d7-1acf-47bb-8b3c-e38b583d9a07 - no such MedicationRequest exists at the server"
    }
  ]
}

Internal server errors

When the FHIR server has received a request for an operation or FHIR resource which is not (yet) implemented, then the NOT_IMPLEMENTED Spine error code SHALL be used.

When the error is unexpected and the server can't be more specific on the exact nature of the problem, then the INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR Spine error code SHALL be used, and diagnostics SHALL be included to provide detail of the error.

Example: Unexpected exception

If an unexpected internal exception is thrown by either an Operation or RESTful API, then the following error details would be returned:

{
  "resourceType": "OperationOutcome",
  "meta": {
    "profile": [
      "https://fhir.hl7.org.uk/StructureDefinition/UKCore-OperationOutcome"
    ]
  },
  "issue": [
    {
      "severity": "error",
      "code": "exception",
      "details": {
        "coding": [
          {
            "system": "https://fhir.nhs.uk/R4/ValueSet/Spine-ErrorOrWarningCode-1",
            "code": "INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR",
            "display": "Internal server error"
          }
        ]
      },
      "diagnostics": "Any further internal debug details i.e. stack trace details etc."
    }
  ]
}