NHS England

NHS England (which absorbed NHS Digital in 2023) is the national body that runs England's public health and social care API platform at digital.nhs.uk and api.service.nhs.uk. It publishes a large catalogue of internet-facing APIs - most of them HL7 FHIR R4 built to the FHIR UK Core profile - covering the national spine services: the Personal Demographics Service (PDS), GP Connect, the e-Referral Service (e-RS), the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS), the Organisation Data Service (ODS), Booking and Referral Standard (BaRS), immunisation history, the NHS App, NHS Notify, and the Directory of Healthcare Services. Access is governed centrally: applications onboard through the NHS API platform and authenticate with OAuth 2.0 bearer tokens - application-restricted (signed-JWT client credentials / API key) or user-restricted via NHS login (OIDC) and NHS CIS2 - with production access gated behind registration, assurance, and connection agreements. Home market is the United Kingdom (England). Positioning: a single national health system operating public, standards-based (FHIR UK Core) interoperability APIs rather than a commercial API vendor.

NHS England publishes 7 APIs on the APIs.io network, including e-Referral Service (e-RS) - FHIR API, Booking and Referral Standard (BaRS) - FHIR API, Immunisation History - FHIR API, and 4 more. Tagged areas include Healthcare, United Kingdom, National Health System, FHIR, and HL7.

The NHS England catalog on APIs.io includes 1 event-driven AsyncAPI specification.

NHS England’s developer surface includes authentication, API reference, support, sandbox, documentation, getting-started guide, engineering blog, and 21 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub
45.2/100 developing ▬ flat Agent 78/100 agent native Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5
10 APIs 1 MCP Servers
HealthcareUnited KingdomNational Health SystemFHIRHL7InteroperabilitySMART on FHIRHealth Datae-PrescribingEHR

Kin Score

Kin Score Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5
Composite quality — 45.2/100 · developing
Contract Quality 13.2 / 25
Developer Ergonomics 14.8 / 20
Commercial Clarity 1.6 / 20
Operational Transparency 4.1 / 13
Governance 0.0 / 12
Discoverability 8.8 / 10
Agent readiness — 78/100 · agent native
Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18
Agentic Access Contract 15 / 15
MCP Server 12 / 12
Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10
Idempotency 0 / 9
Stable Error Semantics 8 / 8
Request/Response Examples 0 / 7
Rate-Limit Signaling 0 / 7
Typed Event Surface 6 / 6
Agent Skills 5 / 5
Well-Known Catalog 4 / 4
Consent & Bot Identity 3 / 3
Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/nhs-england: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Want it done for you? Prioritized profiling — $2,500 →

APIs 10

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

Personal Demographics Service (PDS) - FHIR API

National electronic database of NHS patient demographic details - name, address, date of birth, related people, registered GP, nominated pharmacy and NHS number - exposed as an ...

GP Connect Access Record - Structured - FHIR API

Lets authorised health and social care staff retrieve a patient's GP practice record as structured HL7 FHIR resources (medications, allergies, problems, immunisations, and more)...

Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) - FHIR API

National service for sending electronic prescriptions from prescribers to dispensers (pharmacies), exposed as an HL7 FHIR R4 API. Sandbox FHIR endpoint confirmed live (returns a...

e-Referral Service (e-RS) - FHIR API

Create paperless referrals from primary to secondary care and receive referrals, Clinical Referral Information (CRI) and attachments from the NHS e-Referral Service, as an HL7 F...

Booking and Referral Standard (BaRS) - FHIR API

Sends booking and referral information between NHS service providers using the Booking and Referral Standard as an HL7 FHIR R4 API. OpenAPI harvested verbatim (8 paths).

Immunisation History - FHIR API

Access a patient's immunisation record (including coronavirus, influenza and HPV immunisations) as an HL7 FHIR R4 API. OpenAPI harvested verbatim.

Organisation Data Service (ODS) - FHIR API

Reference data on NHS and healthcare organisations, roles and terminology (the Organisation Data Service), exposed as an HL7 FHIR R4 API. OpenAPI harvested verbatim (8 paths).

NHS App API

Integrate with the NHS App to deliver messages and content to citizens and to link into NHS App journeys. OpenAPI harvested verbatim (4 paths).

NHS Notify (Communications Manager) API

National service for sending messages to people about their health and care across channels (NHS App, SMS, email, letter). OpenAPI harvested verbatim (7 paths).

Service Search (Directory of Healthcare Services) API

Search the national Directory of Healthcare Services for NHS organisations, services and their attributes. OpenAPI harvested verbatim.

Scroll for all 10

MCP Servers 1

Model Context Protocol servers that expose these APIs to AI agents.

nhs-england-mcp.yml

MCP SERVER

Event Specifications 1

AsyncAPI definitions for this provider's event-driven and streaming APIs.

Nhs England Webhooks

ASYNCAPI

Security Posture 3

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Nhs England Authentication

http · 1 scheme

SECURITY

Nhs England Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · DMARC

SECURITY

Nhs England Vulnerability Disclosure

Hackerone · security.txt · contact published

SECURITY

Agentic Access 1

Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.

Nhs England Agentic Access

70 operations · 32 acting

70 operations · 32 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Get Started 3

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

DeveloperPortal
DeveloperPortal
 Sandbox
Sandbox
 GettingStarted
GettingStarted

Documentation 2

Reference material describing how the API behaves

APIReference
APIReference
 Documentation
Documentation

Agent Surfaces 5

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess
AgenticAccess
 WellKnown
WellKnown
 MCPServer
MCPServer
 LLMsTxt
LLMsTxt
 AgentSkill
AgentSkill

Design & Contract 6

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

Conformance
Conformance
 ErrorCatalog
ErrorCatalog
 Lifecycle
Lifecycle
 Conventions
Conventions
 Webhooks
Webhooks
 DataModel
DataModel

Build 2

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHubOrganization
GitHubOrganization
 ToolCrosswalk
ToolCrosswalk

Access & Security 6

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

VulnerabilityDisclosure
VulnerabilityDisclosure
 DomainSecurity
DomainSecurity
 Authentication
Authentication
 SecurityTxt
SecurityTxt
 Security
Security
 Compliance
Compliance

Operate 2

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

Support
Support
 Deprecation
Deprecation

Company 2

The organization behind the API

Website
Website
 Blog
Blog

Source (apis.yml)

apis.yml Raw ↑ 
aid: nhs-england
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/nhs-england/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
name: NHS England
kind: company
description: 'NHS England (which absorbed NHS Digital in 2023) is the national body that runs England''s public health and
  social care API platform at digital.nhs.uk and api.service.nhs.uk. It publishes a large catalogue of internet-facing APIs
  - most of them HL7 FHIR R4 built to the FHIR UK Core profile - covering the national spine services: the Personal Demographics
  Service (PDS), GP Connect, the e-Referral Service (e-RS), the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS), the Organisation Data
  Service (ODS), Booking and Referral Standard (BaRS), immunisation history, the NHS App, NHS Notify, and the Directory of
  Healthcare Services. Access is governed centrally: applications onboard through the NHS API platform and authenticate with
  OAuth 2.0 bearer tokens - application-restricted (signed-JWT client credentials / API key) or user-restricted via NHS login
  (OIDC) and NHS CIS2 - with production access gated behind registration, assurance, and connection agreements. Home market
  is the United Kingdom (England). Positioning: a single national health system operating public, standards-based (FHIR UK
  Core) interoperability APIs rather than a commercial API vendor.'
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
tags:
- Healthcare
- United Kingdom
- National Health System
- FHIR
- HL7
- Interoperability
- SMART on FHIR
- Health Data
- e-Prescribing
- EHR
created: '2026-07-24'
modified: '2026-07-24'
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis:
- aid: nhs-england:nhs-personal-demographics-service-fhir
  name: Personal Demographics Service (PDS) - FHIR API
  description: National electronic database of NHS patient demographic details - name, address, date of birth, related people,
    registered GP, nominated pharmacy and NHS number - exposed as an HL7 FHIR R4 API. Production endpoint confirmed live and
    auth-gated (HTTP 401 without a token).
  humanURL: https://digital.nhs.uk/developer/api-catalogue/personal-demographics-service-fhir
  baseURL: https://api.service.nhs.uk/personal-demographics/FHIR/R4
  tags:
  - FHIR
  - Demographics
  - Patient
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://digital.nhs.uk/developer/api-catalogue/personal-demographics-service-fhir
- aid: nhs-england:nhs-gp-connect-access-record-structured-fhir
  name: GP Connect Access Record - Structured - FHIR API
  description: Lets authorised health and social care staff retrieve a patient's GP practice record as structured HL7 FHIR
    resources (medications, allergies, problems, immunisations, and more) from EMIS and TPP SystmOne GP systems.
  humanURL: https://digital.nhs.uk/developer/api-catalogue/gp-connect-access-record-structured-fhir
  tags:
  - FHIR
  - GP Connect
  - Clinical Record
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://digital.nhs.uk/developer/api-catalogue/gp-connect-access-record-structured-fhir
- aid: nhs-england:nhs-electronic-prescription-service-fhir
  name: Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) - FHIR API
  description: National service for sending electronic prescriptions from prescribers to dispensers (pharmacies), exposed
    as an HL7 FHIR R4 API. Sandbox FHIR endpoint confirmed live (returns a FHIR OperationOutcome when required headers are
    absent).
  humanURL: https://digital.nhs.uk/developer/api-catalogue/electronic-prescription-service-fhir
  baseURL: https://api.service.nhs.uk/electronic-prescriptions/FHIR/R4
  tags:
  - FHIR
  - e-Prescribing
  - Pharmacy
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://digital.nhs.uk/developer/api-catalogue/electronic-prescription-service-fhir
- aid: nhs-england:nhs-e-referral-service-fhir
  name: e-Referral Service (e-RS) - FHIR API
  description: Create paperless referrals from primary to secondary care and receive referrals, Clinical Referral Information
    (CRI) and attachments from the NHS e-Referral Service, as an HL7 FHIR API. OpenAPI harvested verbatim (38 paths).
  humanURL: https://digital.nhs.uk/developer/api-catalogue/e-referral-service-fhir
  baseURL: https://api.service.nhs.uk/referrals/FHIR
  tags:
  - FHIR
  - Referrals
  - e-RS
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/nhs-e-referral-service-openapi.yaml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://digital.nhs.uk/developer/api-catalogue/e-referral-service-fhir
  - type: SourceCode
    url: https://github.com/NHSDigital/e-referrals-service-api
  - type: Overlay
    url: overlays/nhs-e-referral-service-overlay.yaml
- aid: nhs-england:nhs-booking-and-referral-fhir
  name: Booking and Referral Standard (BaRS) - FHIR API
  description: Sends booking and referral information between NHS service providers using the Booking and Referral Standard
    as an HL7 FHIR R4 API. OpenAPI harvested verbatim (8 paths).
  humanURL: https://github.com/NHSDigital/booking-and-referral-fhir-api
  baseURL: https://api.service.nhs.uk/booking-and-referral/FHIR/R4
  tags:
  - FHIR
  - Booking
  - Referrals
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/nhs-booking-and-referral-fhir-openapi.yaml
  - type: SourceCode
    url: https://github.com/NHSDigital/booking-and-referral-fhir-api
  - type: Overlay
    url: overlays/nhs-booking-and-referral-fhir-overlay.yaml
- aid: nhs-england:nhs-immunisation-history-fhir
  name: Immunisation History - FHIR API
  description: Access a patient's immunisation record (including coronavirus, influenza and HPV immunisations) as an HL7 FHIR
    R4 API. OpenAPI harvested verbatim.
  humanURL: https://digital.nhs.uk/developer/api-catalogue/immunisation-fhir-api
  baseURL: https://api.service.nhs.uk/immunisation-history/FHIR/R4
  tags:
  - FHIR
  - Immunisation
  - Public Health
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/nhs-immunisation-history-openapi.yaml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://digital.nhs.uk/developer/api-catalogue/immunisation-fhir-api
  - type: SourceCode
    url: https://github.com/NHSDigital/immunisation-history-api
  - type: Overlay
    url: overlays/nhs-immunisation-history-overlay.yaml
- aid: nhs-england:nhs-organisation-data-service-fhir
  name: Organisation Data Service (ODS) - FHIR API
  description: Reference data on NHS and healthcare organisations, roles and terminology (the Organisation Data Service),
    exposed as an HL7 FHIR R4 API. OpenAPI harvested verbatim (8 paths).
  humanURL: https://github.com/NHSDigital/organisation-data-service-fhir-api
  baseURL: https://beta.ods.dc4h.link/fhir/
  tags:
  - FHIR
  - Reference Data
  - Organisations
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/nhs-organisation-data-service-fhir-r4-openapi.yaml
  - type: SourceCode
    url: https://github.com/NHSDigital/organisation-data-service-fhir-api
  - type: Overlay
    url: overlays/nhs-organisation-data-service-fhir-r4-overlay.yaml
- aid: nhs-england:nhs-app-api
  name: NHS App API
  description: Integrate with the NHS App to deliver messages and content to citizens and to link into NHS App journeys. OpenAPI
    harvested verbatim (4 paths).
  humanURL: https://github.com/NHSDigital/nhs-app-api
  baseURL: https://api.service.nhs.uk/nhs-app
  tags:
  - NHS App
  - Citizen
  - Messaging
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/nhs-app-openapi.yaml
  - type: SourceCode
    url: https://github.com/NHSDigital/nhs-app-api
  - type: Overlay
    url: overlays/nhs-app-overlay.yaml
- aid: nhs-england:nhs-notify-communications-manager
  name: NHS Notify (Communications Manager) API
  description: National service for sending messages to people about their health and care across channels (NHS App, SMS,
    email, letter). OpenAPI harvested verbatim (7 paths).
  humanURL: https://github.com/NHSDigital/communications-manager-api
  baseURL: https://api.service.nhs.uk/comms
  tags:
  - Notifications
  - Messaging
  - Citizen
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/nhs-communications-manager-openapi.yaml
  - type: SourceCode
    url: https://github.com/NHSDigital/communications-manager-api
  - type: Overlay
    url: overlays/nhs-communications-manager-overlay.yaml
- aid: nhs-england:nhs-service-search
  name: Service Search (Directory of Healthcare Services) API
  description: Search the national Directory of Healthcare Services for NHS organisations, services and their attributes.
    OpenAPI harvested verbatim.
  humanURL: https://github.com/NHSDigital/service-search-api
  baseURL: https://api.service.nhs.uk/service-search-api
  tags:
  - Directory
  - Service Search
  - Reference Data
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/nhs-service-search-openapi.yaml
  - type: SourceCode
    url: https://github.com/NHSDigital/service-search-api
  - type: Overlay
    url: overlays/nhs-service-search-overlay.yaml
common:
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/nhs-england-agentic-access.yml
- type: VulnerabilityDisclosure
  url: security/nhs-england-vulnerability-disclosure.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/nhs-england-domain-security.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/nhs-england-authentication.yml
- type: Website
  url: https://digital.nhs.uk/
- type: DeveloperPortal
  url: https://digital.nhs.uk/developer
- type: APIReference
  url: https://digital.nhs.uk/developer/api-catalogue
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/NHSDigital
- type: Support
  url: https://digital.nhs.uk/developer/help-and-support
- type: SecurityTxt
  url: well-known/nhs-england-security.txt
- type: WellKnown
  url: well-known/nhs-england-well-known.yml
- type: Security
  url: https://www.england.nhs.uk/security-vulnerability-disclosure/
- type: MCPServer
  url: mcp/nhs-england-mcp.yml
- type: ToolCrosswalk
  url: mcp/nhs-england-tool-crosswalk.yml
- type: LLMsTxt
  url: llms/nhs-england-llms.txt
- type: Conformance
  url: conformance/nhs-england-conformance.yml
- type: Compliance
  url: https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/digital-clinical-safety-assurance/
- type: ErrorCatalog
  url: errors/nhs-england-problem-types.yml
- type: Lifecycle
  url: lifecycle/nhs-england-lifecycle.yml
- type: Deprecation
  url: https://digital.nhs.uk/services/e-referral-service/api/updates-and-releases/sunsetting-policy
- type: Conventions
  url: conventions/nhs-england-conventions.yml
- type: Webhooks
  url: asyncapi/nhs-england-webhooks.yml
- type: Sandbox
  url: sandbox/nhs-england-sandbox.yml
- type: DataModel
  url: data-model/nhs-england-data-model.yml
- type: AgentSkill
  url: skills/_index.yml
- type: Documentation
  url: https://digital.nhs.uk/developer/guides-and-documentation/reference-guide
- type: GettingStarted
  url: https://digital.nhs.uk/developer/guides-and-documentation
- type: Blog
  url: https://digital.nhs.uk/blog
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com