e-Referral Service - FHIR API

Overview

Use this API to create paperless referrals from primary to secondary care with the e-Referral Service (e-RS). As a primary care referrer, you can:

create a new e-referral

search for relevant patient services to create a shortlist

access existing e-referrals

create a triage request for the Referral Assessment Service (RAS)

upload and manage a patient letter or attachments, linking them to a referral

retrieve appointment slots and book appointments

defer a booking to a provider if an appointment slot is unavailable

As a secondary care provider, you can:

access referrals as a worklist

retrieve non-clinical information (meta-data) about the referral

retrieve attachments which are linked to a referral or triage (RAS) request

retrieve clinical information which has been provided by a referrer

accept or reject a referral request

retrieve Advice & Guidance (A&G) conversations and send responses

convert Advice & Guidance (A&G) conversations into a referral

You cannot use this API to:

get patient details – instead, use the Personal Demographic Service (PDS)

You can access the following data:

referral attachments

referral letters

appointment slots

worklists for referral requests

worklists for triage (RAS) requests

worklists for Advice and Guidance (A&G) requests

conversation histories for Advice and Guidance (A&G) requests

Access modes This API has two access modes:

Access mode

Authentication via

Functions

Availability

Application-restricted, unattended access

Signed JWT

A004, A005, A006, A007, A024, A025 and A043

In production, beta

Healthcare worker, user-restricted access

CIS2

All Endpoints

In production, beta

Application-restricted, unattended access This access mode has been introduced to allow a Partner application which has been registered with us and authenticated via signed JWT to interact with a subset of e-RS FHIR API endpoints in an unattended and read-only fashion.

Application-restricted, unattended access should only be used when authenticating a human user (for example via smartcard) is not possible. Writing changes (such as Create Referral) are not supported via this access mode. Healthcare worker, user-restricted access This access mode allows Partner applications to access e-RS FHIR API endpoints by authenticating users with NHS Care Identity Service 2 (CIS2). This access mode must be used for writing changes (such as Create Referral).

Documentation

e-Referral Service - FHIR API documentation

Endpoint

https://digital.nhs.uk/developer/api-catalogue/e-referral-service-fhir

Contact

https://digital.nhs.uk/developer/help-and-support