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practitioner

The practitioner is a terminology CodeSystem which holds the practitioner information published by ODS which includes GPs, nurses, hospital and dental consultants.

Overview

The practitioner is a CodeSystem held on the NHS England Terminology Server (ODS Instance) which holds the practitioner information published by ODS which includes GPs, nurses, hospital and dental consultants.

It is subject to change daily as new practitioners are created, therefore we suggest that you retrieve the latest version via the API.

This API forms part of the strategic products provided by ODS and is intended to replace our two existing APIs.


CodeSystem usage

You can retrieve reference CodeSystems in full, as they are small enough to be returned in a single query.  

Larger CodeSystems which generally contain instance data cannot be retrieved in full due to their size. 

You can also search or validate individual concepts; codes stored within the CodeSystem.

Refer to our OAS specification for more information.


CodeSystem properties

Property code Property description
1 General National Code (GNC)
2 Private Controlled Drug Prescriber Code
3 Hospital Consultant Code
4 Dental Consultant Code
5 Nurse Prescriber Code
6 General Medical Council Code (GMC)
7 General Dental Council Code (GDC)
8 Northern Ireland General Practitioner Code
gender Gender of practitioner - not currently populated
inactiveID Inactive Practitioner Role ID
lastChangeDate The date on which the record was last changed (created or amended). This date can be used by consumers to identify amended records since a point in time
ME1 An instance of a membership/affiliation between a General Practitioner and a General Practice
ME2 An instance of a membership/affiliation between a Private Controlled Drug Prescriber and their parent organisation
ME3 An instance of a membership/affiliation between a Hospital Consultant and an NHS Trust or Care Trust
ME4 An instance of a membership/affiliation between a Dental Consultant and an NHS Trust or Care Trust
ME5 An instance of a membership/affiliation between a Nurse Prescriber and a General Practice
name Practitioner Name
role Practitioner Role ID
type Practitioner Type Code, such as PGP, PNGP, PPCDP, PHOSPCON, PDENTCON, PNURSE

Other CodeSystems available

The CodeSystem names in the tables below are case sensitive.

Resolvable CodeSystems

The following CodeSystems are resolvable.

Non-resolvable CodeSystems

The following CodeSystems are non-resolvable.

If you try and navigate to the System URL the browser will display an error. For more details about these CodeSystems refer to our Simplifier pages

CodeSystem System URL
ods-organization-code https://fhir.nhs.uk/Id/ods-organization-code
England-ODSDateTime https://fhir.nhs.uk/England/CodeSystem/England-ODSDateTime
England-ODSRecordUseType https://fhir.nhs.uk/England/CodeSystem/England-ODSRecordUseType
England-PeriodType https://fhir.nhs.uk/England/CodeSystem/England-PeriodType

Companion product

We have also produced a user interface that allows access to the same information through our companion product: ODS Data Search and Export.


Further information

For more specific information about the data refer to our Reference Data Catalogue

Additional CodeSystems are referenced by the Implementation Guidance, and these can be found on our Simplifier pages.

Last edited: 27 October 2025 2:44 pm