Attribute: ORGANISATION DEPARTMENT CODE

ORGANISATION DEPARTMENT CODE

A code which identifies an ORGANISATION DEPARTMENT uniquely.

For NHS ORGANISATIONS it is a code that is managed by either the:

Note:
Organisation Data Service codes, can be downloaded from the Organisation Data Service website.
Organisation Data Service contact details, can be found at Contact Details.

ORGANISATION DEPARTMENT CODING FRAMES

All NHS ORGANISATION DEPARTMENTS are coded using coding frames, as shown in the tables below:

Character Position	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Format	a/n	a/n	a/n	a/n	a/n	a/n	a/n	a/n
A Frame	Department Type Identifier		Department Identifier

A Frame:

Example
Pathology Laboratory e.g. 69010

6 = Department Type Identifier
9010 = Department Identifier

The structure and format of ORGANISATION DEPARTMENT CODES maintained by the Organisation Data Service, NHS Prescription Services and other agencies are detailed in the table below.

ORGANISATION CODES TABLES

Table 1: CODING FORMATS FOR ORGANISATION DEPARTMENTS IN ENGLAND AND WALES

ORGANISATION DEPARTMENT CODES for England and Wales which are published by the Organisation Data Service can be found on their website at:
http://nww.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/ods/downloads.

Organisation Type	Frame Type	Character Position	Code allocated by:	Notes/Comments
	See Coding Frames Table	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Executive Agency Programme Department	N/A See Note	X	0-9	0-9	0-9	0-9	0-9	A-Y	A-Y	ODS	First six characters denote Executive Agency Programme E.g. X09001AA
Pathology Laboratory	A	6	9	A-9	A-9	A-9				ODS	E.g. 69010

Organisation Type

Frame Type

Character Position

Code allocated by:

Notes/Comments

See Coding Frames Table

Executive Agency Programme Department

N/A

See Note

0-9

A-Y

ODS

First six characters denote Executive Agency Programme

E.g. X09001AA

Pathology Laboratory

A-9

ODS

E.g. 69010

Note: Codes for Executive Agency, Executive Agency Programme, Executive Agency Site and Executive Agency Programme Department do not easily fit into the coding frames as shown above and are therefore not included. This is due to their unusual structure in that there are more hierarchical 'tiers' than with other organisations.

Executive Agency and Executive Agency Programme are both considered Organisation level entities, although each Programme does have a relationship to an Executive Agency. Executive Agency codes are three characters long. Executive Agency Programme codes are six, and their first three characters are the same as the Executive Agency they are associated to.

Department codes of eight characters long can then be allocated underneath a Programme code (sharing the first six characters). Executive Agency Site codes of five characters long can be allocated under an Executive Agency code (and share the first three characters).

Note: A-9 indicates that characters A-Z and 0-9 are valid: except B, I, O, S, U and Z (to avoid ambiguity).

This attribute is also known by these names:

Context Alias

plural ORGANISATION DEPARTMENT CODES