Notice: This guidance is under active development by NHS England and content may be added or updated on a regular basis.
NHS Number
The NHS Number is the national identifier used to uniquely identify a patient within NHS healthcare services.
The NHS Number should be represented using the FHIR Identifier datatype.
When to use
The NHS Number SHOULD be used to identify a patient where it is available.
The NHS Number is represented using the FHIR Identifier datatype. The system identifies the NHS Number namespace and the value contains the patient's NHS Number.
Identifier system
The Identifier.system for an NHS Number is:
https://fhir.nhs.uk/Id/nhs-number
Identifier value
Identifier.value contains the patient's NHS Number.
The NHS Number should be represented without spaces or other formatting characters.
Example
{
"identifier": [
{
"system": "https://fhir.hl7.org.uk/Id/nhs-number",
"value": "9876543210"
}
]
}