The General Medical Council allocates all doctors a GENERAL MEDICAL COUNCIL REFERENCE NUMBER on their first contact with the General Medical Council.
If a doctor chooses to enter general practice in England or Wales, a further 6-digit number is allocated by the Health and Social Care Information Centre. This number is referred to as the DOCTOR INDEX NUMBER.
The DOCTOR INDEX NUMBER is passed to the NHS Prescription Services, which adds a leading character and a check digit to create the GENERAL MEDICAL PRACTITIONER PPD CODE. The NHS Prescription Services uses this for the issue of prescription pads, etc.
A doctor can be both a GENERAL PRACTITIONER and a Hospital CONSULTANT, and therefore hold a DOCTOR INDEX NUMBER, GENERAL MEDICAL PRACTITIONER PPD CODE and a CONSULTANT CODE simultaneously.
Doctor Index Number Code Table
| Practitioner Code Type | Character Position | Allocated By | Allocated To | Known As | Notes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |||||
| DOCTOR INDEX NUMBER | 0-9 | 0-9 | 0-9 | 0-9 | 0-9 | 0-9 | Health and Social Care Information Centre | GMPs in England & Wales | DIN | Allocated to a doctor upon applying to enter General Practice in England or Wales |
This attribute is also known by these names:
| Context | Alias |
|---|---|
| shortname | DIN |
| plural | DOCTOR INDEX NUMBERS |