Responsible Agencies

Organisation Data Service:

The Organisation Data Service is responsible for allocating administrative codes to a wide range of ORGANISATIONS in England and Wales, including but not limited to:

• Care Trusts (CTs)
• Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs)
• Independent Providers (IPs)
• NHS Trusts
• Pathology Laboratories
• Special Health Authorities (SpHAs).

Several other UK agencies are responsible for issuing or publishing codes (to NHS standards) for the following healthcare ORGANISATIONS and CARE PROFESSIONALS and for maintaining their details.

• NHS Prescription Services:
  • GENERAL MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS in England, Wales, Isle of Man and Channel Islands
  • GP Practices in England, Isle of Man and Channel Islands
  • Pharmacy and appliance dispensers in England, Isle of Man and Channel Islands
• NHS Dental Services:
  • GENERAL DENTAL PRACTITIONERS in England, Wales and Isle of Man
  • General Dental Practices in England, Wales and Isle of Man
• NHS Wales Informatics Service (NWIS):
  • The Prescription Pricing Unit maintain GP Practice details by way of receiving notification from the Business Service Centre of a new GP Practice and then generating an internal code and passing on to the NHS Prescription Services for allocation of the W (Welsh) GP Practice
• NHS in Scotland:
  • All healthcare ORGANISATIONS and practitioners in Scotland
• Department of Health, Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS), Northern Ireland:
  • All healthcare ORGANISATIONS and practitioners in Northern Ireland
• Office for National Statistics (ONS):
  • Responsible for the formal definition of key health geographies in the UK, in terms of their component postcodes.

Administrative codes are used for:

• the identification of information returned to the Department of Health;
• the identification of the ORGANISATIONS involved in the electronic exchange of information within the NHS;
• the identification of the parties involved in the commissioning and administration of an episode of care.

Where a valid ORGANISATION CODE is required for a message but is not available or not known for some reason, an Organisation Data Service Default Code can be used to provide a substitute value: These codes are maintained by the Organisation Data Service.

The current coding standards were introduced in 1996 by the Organisation Codes Service (OCS), now the Organisation Data Service. Subsequent revisions to the structure and format of ORGANISATION CODES have given these codes a consistent and stable format. This both reflects the organisational changes in the NHS and protects the codes against future changes to the structure of the NHS.

These details are made available in the Organisation Data Service data set, issued quarterly to NHS users via the online distribution service, Technology Reference Data Update Distribution Service (TRUD) and through the Organisation Data Service pages on the NHSnet.

For the Organisation Data Service contact details, see Contact Details.

For codes and format see:

ORGANISATION CODE
ORGANISATION DEPARTMENT CODE
ORGANISATION SITE CODE
CONSULTANT CODE
DOCTOR INDEX NUMBER
GENERAL MEDICAL COUNCIL REFERENCE NUMBER
GENERAL MEDICAL PRACTITIONER PPD CODE
GENERAL DENTAL COUNCIL REGISTRATION NUMBER
GENERAL DENTAL PRACTITIONER CODE
PRIVATE CONTROLLED DRUG PRESCRIBER CODE