References

Create

API to support the creation of NRLS pointers. This functionality is only available for providers.

Create Request Headers

Provider API create requests support the following HTTP request headers:

Create Operation

Provider system will construct a new Pointer (DocumentReference) and submit this to NRLS using the FHIR RESTful create interaction.

Providers systems SHALL only create pointers for records where they are the pointer owner (custodian).

For all create requests the custodian ODS code in the DocumentReference resource SHALL be affiliated with the Client System ASID value in the fromASID HTTP request header sent to the NRLS.

In addition to the base mandatory data-elements, the following data-elements are also mandatory:

• The type data-element MUST be included in the payload request.

XML Example of a new DocumentReference resource (pointer)

JSON Example of a new DocumentReference resource (pointer)

Create Response

Success:

• SHALL return a 201 CREATED HTTP status code on successful execution of the interaction and the entry has been successfully created in the NRLS.
• SHALL return a response body containing a payload with an OperationOutcome resource that conforms to the ‘Operation Outcome’ core FHIR resource. See table below.
• SHALL return an HTTP Location response header containing the full resolvable URL to the newly created ‘single’ DocumentReference.
  • The URL will contain the ‘server’ assigned logical Id of the new DocumentReference resource.
  • The URL format MUST be: https://[host]/[path]?_id=[id].
  • An example Location response header:
    • https://psis-sync.national.ncrs.nhs.uk/DocumentReference?_id=297c3492-3b78-11e8-b333-6c3be5a609f5-54477876544511209789
• When a resource has been created it will have a versionId of 1.

The table summarises the create interaction HTTP response code and the values expected to be conveyed in the successful response body OperationOutcome payload:

Failure:

The following errors can be triggered when performing this operation:

• Invalid Request Message
• Invalid Resource
• Organisation not found
• Invalid NHS Number
• Invalid Parameter
• Duplicate Resource

Ensuring that masterIdentifier is unique

The masterIdentifier should be unique within the NRLS. For more information see the discussion on Pointer identifiers. The masterIdentifer is a FHIR identifier and for NRLS the system and value properties are mandatory.

The system defines how the value is made unique. As the FHIR specification says this might be a recognised standard that describes how this uniqueness is generated.

The NRLS recommends the use of either an OID or a UUID as an Identifier in keeping with the need for the masterIdentifier value to be unique. In this case then the system SHALL be “urn:ietf:rfc:3986” (see the FHIR identifier registry for details) and the value is of the form –

• OID - urn:oid:[oidValue]
• UUID - urn:uuid:[uuidValue]

See the example OID and UUID based Identifiers from the FHIR specification.

Code Examples

POST a Pointer with C#

The following code samples are taken from the NRLS Demonstrator application which has both Consumer and Provider client implementations built in. More information about the design solution can be found on the NRLS Demonstrator Wiki

First we generate a base pointer request model that includes the custodian and author details, and the specific care plan attachment details that are later used to build our pointer (DocumentReference). These pointer values are taken from the demo crisis plan that is created for the Demonstrator Provider system.

Then we call our DocumentReference service GenerateAndCreatePointer method which will generate our pointer (DocumentReference) using the values stored in the model, build a POST command request and then start the call to the NRLS API.

var pointerRequest = NrlsPointerRequest.Create(crisisPlan.OrgCode, crisisPlan.OrgCode, crisisPlan.PatientNhsNumber, $"https://spine-proxy.national.ncrs.nhs.uk/{newCrisisPlan.Id}/mental-health-care-plan.pdf", "application/pdf", MentalHealthCrisisPlanTypeCode, MentalHealthCrisisPlanTypeDisplay, crisisPlan.Asid);

//Create new NRLS pointer
var newPointer = await _documentReferenceServices.GenerateAndCreatePointer(pointerRequest);

Within the DocumentReference service GenerateAndCreatePointer method we generate our pointer model and then serialise this generated model ready for posting:

{
    var pointerJson = new FhirJsonSerializer().SerializeToString(pointer);

Calling the NRLS
Using our POST command request model we create a connection to the NRLS using HttpClient.

You can view the common connection code example here.

Explore the NRLS
You can explore and test the NRLS POST command using Swagger in our Reference implementation.