NHS numbers are the unique numbers allocated in a shared numbering scheme to registered users of the three public health services in England, Wales and the Isle of Man. It is the key to the identification of patients, especially in delivering safe care across provider organisations, and is required in all new software deployed within these

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

s (NHS).

History

"New NHS numbers" were allocated to every newborn from July 1995, generally introduced in 1996, and became mandatory on 1 April 1997. This replaced the previous system founded on wartime

identity card An identity document (abbreviated as ID) is a documentation, document proving a person's Identity (social science), identity. If the identity document is a plastic card it is called an ''identity card'' (abbreviated as ''IC'' or ''ID card''). ...

numbers, which in England and Wales used letters and digits (e.g. JRDAN 269); Scotland used numbers based on households with individuals further identified within the household (e.g. STUV123:3), and this meant that it was hard to validate a specific number. The numerical part of ID/NHS numbers allocated to people born after the Second World War in England and Wales matched the birth register entry number (i.e. a person whose birth was entry number xy would have an ID/NHS number in the format LLLLxy). Between 1969 and July 1995, the old-style NHS number was used on a baby's birth certificate as the reference number for the certificate.

Issue

A person gets an NHS number at birth or when they first make contact with the NHS by registering with a GP. It comes from a record being made on the Personal Demographics Service, a national patient database. NHS Numbers are re-issued if a patient is adopted or undergoes gender re-assignment.

Format, number ranges, and check characters

The current system uses a ten-digit number in '3 3 4' format with the final digit being an error-detecting

checksum A checksum is a small-sized block of data derived from another block of digital data for the purpose of detecting errors that may have been introduced during its transmission or storage. By themselves, checksums are often used to verify dat ...

. Examples given include 987 654 4321. Currently issued numbers for England, Wales and the Isle of Man are from 400 000 000 to 499 999 999, and 600 000 000 to 799 999 999. Current numbers in England also include 3xx xxx xxxx. Unavailable number ranges include 320 000 001 to 399 999 999 (allocated to the Northern Irish system) and 010 100 0000 to 311 299 9999 (used for CHI numbers in Scotland).

NHS England NHS England, formally the NHS Commissioning Board for England, is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care. It oversees the budget, planning, delivery and day-to-day operation of the commissioning si ...

reserves the numbers 999 000 0000 to 999 999 9999 for test purposes; these numbers are valid but are never going to be issued. The checksum is calculated by multiplying each of the first nine digits by 11 minus its position. Using the number 943 476 5919 as an example: * The first digit is 9. This is multiplied by 10. * The second digit is 4. This is multiplied by 9. * And so on until the ninth digit (1) is multiplied by 2. * The result of this calculation is summed. In this example: 9×10+4×9+3×8+4×7+7×6+6×5+5×4+9×3+1×2 = 299. * The remainder when dividing this number by 11 is calculated, yielding a number in the range 0–10, which would be 2 in this case. * Finally, this number is subtracted from 11 to give the checksum in the range 1–11, in this case 9, which becomes the last digit of the NHS number. * A checksum of 11 is represented by 0 in the final NHS number. If the checksum is 10 then the number is not valid.

Coordination with Scotland and Northern Ireland

Scotland's equivalent is called a CHI number. A similar system is used in Northern Ireland. The three systems use the same format but with non-overlapping number blocks, as above, preventing the issue of the same number by more than one system.

References

{{reflist, colwidth=33em, refs= {{Cite web , url = http://systems.digital.nhs.uk/nhsnumber/staff/history , archive-url = http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160921150847/http://systems.digital.nhs.uk/nhsnumber/staff/history , url-status = dead , archive-date = 2016-09-21 , title = About the NHS number , accessdate = 2018-04-09 , publisher = NHS Digital {{Cite web , url = https://digital.nhs.uk/article/301/NHS-Number , title = Systems: NHS Number , accessdate = 8 December 2016 , publisher =

Health and Social Care Information Centre Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, pa ...

{{Cite web , url = http://www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/systemsandservices/nhsnumber/staff/guidance/factsheet.pdf , title = NHS Number: Your Unique Patient Identifier Fact Sheet for NHS Staff , accessdate = 2012-11-27 , publisher = NHS Connecting for Health , archiveurl=http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130502102046/http://www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/systemsandservices/nhsnumber/staff/guidance/factsheet.pdf , archivedate=2 May 2013 {{cite web , url = http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/ObsGyn/it_med/nhsnet.htm , title = Application of Information Technology to Medicine: NHS-wide networking , author = Julian M. Jenkins , year = 1996 , publisher = Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology,

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

, location = St. Michael's Hospital, Bristol , accessdate = 2013-08-11 {{cite web , url = http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/ObsGyn/it_med/nhsnet.htm , title = 08/2000 - Commissioning Data Sets (CDSs) i) Enhancement to functionality: HRGs and other changes ii) alignment with CMDSs , format = PDF , date = October 2000 , publisher = Information Standards Board for Health and Social Care , accessdate = 2013-08-11 National Health Service National identification numbers

History

Issue

Format, number ranges, and check characters

Coordination with Scotland and Northern Ireland

See also

References