GP Connect Send Document

This guidance is under active development by NHS Digital and content may be added or updated on a regular basis.
This version of GP Connect Send Document supports one use-case which is a Consultation Summary (PDF).
Additional use-cases are expected to be supported in 2023.

Error handling

The following section describes error scenarios and associated error codes for this capability.


ITK3

  • where the received message does not conform to the requirements stated for ITK3 header, or for the payload, the message MUST be considered invalid

  • where a received message is invalid, an ITK3 Response MUST be generated with the corresponding Negative ITK3 Response Code, which indicates the nature of the error, and the message MUST NOT be accepted for downstream processing


Diagnostic information

The error context and description MUST be provided in the OperationOutcome.diagnostic element to enable the sender to correctly identify the error which has been found in their sent message

See Profile: ITK-Response-OperationOutcome-1 for more information on how to populate this FHIR resource.


MESH endpoint lookup

The following table describes error codes returned from the MESH server as a result of issues encountered using the facility to route a message automatically to the registered practice.

The following errors, when encountered, MUST be handled gracefully by the message sending system:

Status Code MESH Error Code Description
EPL-150 ERROR_TOO_MANY_MAILBOX_MATCHES Multiple mailboxes matches
EPL-151 ERROR_NO_MAILBOX_MATCHES No mailbox matched
EPL-152 ERROR_INVALID_NHSNUMBER Invalid NHS Number
EPL-153 ERROR_NHSNUMBER_NOT_FOUND NHS Number not found
EPL-154 ERROR_NO_DEMOGRAPHICS_MATCH NHS Number supplied does not match the demographics

MESH will generate these errors in the form of error reports which will be placed in the sender’s mailbox to await collection and processing by the sending organisation.


MESH API

Note: When using the MESH API to send a message, errors encountered when using the automated registered practice routing will not be returned in the API response header or payload, but via a MESH error report .CTL file placed in the sending organisation MESH mailbox.

For example, where an invalid NHS Number has been supplied in the Mex_To HTTP header, an error report .CTL file will be returned with a <StatusRecord> section, which provides error details as follows:

<StatusRecord>
    <DateTime>20170926135509</DateTime>
    <Event>SEND</Event>
    <Status>ERROR</Status>
    <StatusCode>EPL-152</StatusCode>
    <Description>Invalid NHS Number</Description>
</StatusRecord>

  • where a Consultation Report is not successfully received/managed by the message receiver, the sender system MUST inform an appropriate person
  • where either the infrastructure or business acknowledgements, or both, are not received for a Consultation Report, the sender system MUST inform an appropriate person
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