Prerequisites

Consumer

The consumer system:

• SHALL have previously resolved the organisation’s FHIR endpoint base URL through the Spine Directory Service
• SHALL have previously traced the patient’s NHS number using the Personal Demographics Service or an equivalent service

API usage

Resolve (zero or more) Patient resources using a business identifier (that is, NHS number).

Request Operation

The [system] field SHALL be populated with a valid patient identifier system URL (that is, https://fhir.nhs.uk/Id/nhs-number).

The consumer system SHALL apply percent encoding when constructing the request URL as indicated in RFC 3986 Section 2.1. This will ensure that downstream servers correctly handle the pipe | character, which must be used in the identifier parameter value below.

FHIR relative request

GET /Patient?identifier=[system]|[value]

FHIR absolute request

GET https://[proxy_server]/https://[provider_server]/[fhir_base]/Patient?identifier=[system]|[value]

Request headers

Consumers SHALL include the following additional HTTP request headers:

Payload request body

N/A

Error handling

Provider systems:

• SHALL return an GPConnect-OperationOutcome-1 resource that provides additional detail when one or more request fields are corrupt or a specific business rule/constraint is breached

For example the:

• business identifier [system] is not recognised/supported by the Provider system
• business identifier fails structural validation checks (that is, not enough digits to be a valid NHS number)

Request response

Response headers

Provider systems are not expected to add any specific headers beyond that described in the HTTP and FHIR® standards.

Payload response body

Provider systems:

• SHALL return a 200 OK HTTP status code on successful execution of the operation.
• SHALL return zero or more matching Patient resources in a Bundle of type searchset.
• SHALL only return Patient resources for Active patients (Definition of a GP Connect Active Patient).
• SHALL return Patient resources that conform to the CareConnect-GPC-Patient-1 profile.
• SHALL include the URI of the CareConnect-GPC-Patient-1 profile StructureDefinition in the Patient.meta.profile element of the returned Patient resources.
• SHALL include the versionId and fullUrl of the current version of each Patient resource.
• SHALL include all relevant business identifier details (that is, NHS number) for each Patient resource.
• SHALL supply gender, name and birth date where these are available (as indicated by the Must-Support FHIR property)
• SHALL populate the preferred branch surgery within the registration details extension of the patient resource with a reference to a location resource which represents the patients preferred branch surgery including ODS Site Code where available OR the GP Practice where they are registered if there is no preferred branch surgery including the Organization ODS Code identifier.
• The patient resource SHALL contain at least a single name element. The patient resource SHALL contain a single instance of the name element with the use of official. This official name should contain the name registered on the spine which is returned by a PDS lookup for the patient.

{
	"resourceType": "Bundle",
	"type": "searchset",
	"entry": [{
		"fullUrl": "http://gpconnect.aprovider.nhs.net/GP001/STU3/1/Patient/2",
		"resource": {
			"resourceType": "Patient",
			"id": "2",
			"meta": {
				"versionId": "1469448000000",
				"lastUpdated": "2016-07-25T12:00:00.000+00:00",
				"profile": [
					"https://fhir.nhs.uk/STU3/StructureDefinition/CareConnect-GPC-Patient-1"
				]
			},
			"extension": [{
							"url": "https://fhir.nhs.uk/STU3/StructureDefinition/Extension-CareConnect-GPC-RegistrationDetails-1",
							"extension": [
								{
									"url": "preferredBranchSurgery",
									"valueReference": {
										"reference": "Location/785b4ff5-aced-4bdf-b7ed-34f92131ce97"
									}
								}
							]
						}],
			"identifier": [
				{
					"extension": [
						{
							"url": "https://fhir.nhs.uk/STU3/StructureDefinition/Extension-CareConnect-GPC-NHSNumberVerificationStatus-1",
							"valueCodeableConcept": {
								"coding": [
									{
										"system": "https://fhir.nhs.uk/CareConnect-NHSNumberVerificationStatus-1",
										"code": "01",
										"display": "Number present and verified"
									}
								]
							}
						}
					],
					"system": "https://fhir.nhs.uk/Id/nhs-number",
					"value": "9476719931"
				}
			],
			"active": true,
			"name": [
				{
					"use": "official",
					"text": "Minnie DAWES",
					"family": "Jackson",
					"given": ["Jane"],
					"prefix": ["Miss"]
				}
			],
			"telecom": [
				{
					"system": "phone",
					"value": "01454587554",
					"use": "home"
				}
			],
			"gender": "female",
			"birthDate": "1952-05-31",
			"address": [
				{
					"use": "home",
					"type": "physical",
					"text": "Trevelyan Square, Boar Ln, Leeds, LS1 6AE"
					"address": {
						"line": [
							"Trevelyan Square",
							"Boar Ln",
							"Leeds"
						],
						"postalCode": "LS1 6AE"
					}
				}
			]
		}
	}]
}

Example Code

C#

var client = new FhirClient("http://gpconnect.aprovider.nhs.net/GP001/STU3/1/");
client.PreferredFormat = ResourceFormat.Json;
var query = new string[] { "identifier=https://fhir.nhs.uk/Id/nhs-number|9476719931" };
var bundle = client.Search("Patient", query);
FhirSerializer.SerializeResourceToXml(bundle).Dump();

Java

FhirContext ctx = new FhirContext();
IGenericClient client = ctx.newRestfulGenericClient("http://gpconnect.aprovider.nhs.net/GP001/STU3/1/");
Bundle bundle = client.search().forResource(Patient.class)
.where(new TokenClientParam("identifier").exactly().systemAndCode("https://fhir.nhs.uk/Id/nhs-number", "9476719931"))
.encodedXml()
.execute();

cURL

curl -X GET -H 'Ssp-From: 0001' -H 'Ssp-To: 0002' -H 'Ssp-InteractionID: urn:nhs:names:services:gpconnect:fhir:rest:search:patient-1' -H 'Cache-Control: no-cache' -H 'Ssp-TraceID: e623b4de-f6bb-be0c-956d-c4ded0d58fc0' 'http://gpconnect.aprovider.nhs.net/GP001/STU3/1/Patient?identifier=https://fhir.nhs.uk/Id/nhs-number%7CP002'