A unique code identifying each MAIN SPECIALTY designated by Royal Colleges. This is the same as the NHS OCCUPATION CODES describing specialties.

Specialties are divisions of clinical work which may be defined by body systems (dermatology), age (paediatrics), clinical technology (nuclear medicine), clinical function (rheumatology), group of diseases (oncology) or combinations of these factors. Only Specialty titles recognised by the Royal Colleges and Faculties should be used. This list is maintained by the General and Specialist Medical Practice (Education, Training and Qualifications) Order 2003 and European Primary and Specialist Dental Qualifications Regulations 1998.

Each CONSULTANT should be assigned a MAIN SPECIALTY by the ORGANISATION to which the CONSULTANT is contracted. For physicians and surgeons with a generalist component to their work, the MAIN SPECIALTY should be general medicine or general surgery. The hallmark of a general physician or general surgeon is the continued care of unselected emergency referrals. The MAIN SPECIALTY is specific to a Health Care Provider. If, for example, a CONSULTANT physician working in two Health Care Providers has a generalist component to the work in one and not the other, general medicine is only assigned as the MAIN SPECIALTY in the former case. CONSULTANTS in general medicine or general surgery may also have specialist interests and these should be recorded as well as the MAIN SPECIALTY.

The initial source of the information should be the designation on the CONSULTANT's contract. This should be checked periodically against the work a CONSULTANT is actually doing so that the statistics can relate to a CONSULTANT's current type of work.

The MAIN SPECIALTY only should be used for the purpose of producing Specialty costing statistics and for Workforce statistics where links with ACTIVITY and finance are required. Other specialist interests of CONSULTANTS may be recorded for workforce planning purposes.

This will be used to indicate the skill level of medical and dental employees.

Pseudo MAIN SPECIALTY CODES should be used in Commissioning Data Set messages for lead CARE PROFESSIONALS other than CONSULTANT medical and dental staff e.g. 560, 950 and 960.

The MAIN SPECIALTY CODE for GENERAL PRACTITIONERS is General Medical Practice or General Dental Practice.

Joint Consultant Clinic ACTIVITY should be recorded against the MAIN SPECIALTY CODE of the CONSULTANT managing the clinic.

For further information, contact the Health and Social Care Information Centre by email at: enquiries@hscic.gov.uk with the subject "Main Specialty and Treatment Function Codes".

National Codes:

This attribute is also known by these names:

Context	Alias
plural	MAIN SPECIALTY CODES