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National Record Locator - FHIR API

Overview

Use this API to locate and access patient information shared by other healthcare organisations, to support the direct care of those patients, using the National Record Locator (NRL).

For example, an ambulance service treating a patient could access their "mental health crisis plan" (if they have one) as a PDF document directly from their mental health service provider. This would help a patient get more appropriate care from the emergency services.

 

As a "provider" who holds information about patients, you can:

create a pointer in the NRL to your information

replace your NRL pointer with a newer pointer, superseding the old one

update your NRL pointer status to "entered in error"

delete your NRL pointer to this information

As a "consumer" who needs access to the patient information being shared by providers, you can:

search for information by parameters including information ID, patient, information provider, information type,  or number of matching results

retrieve an NRL pointer and access the information

There is a growing list of health and social care organisations authorised to share records using NRL.

For more details, see the National Record Locator for developers and the Introduction to the National Record Locator.

Documentation

National Record Locator - FHIR API documentation

Endpoint

https://digital.nhs.uk/developer/api-catalogue/national-record-locator-fhir

Contact

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