Organisation Data Service - ORD API

Use this API to access details of health and social care organisations in England and Wales, such as trusts or GP practices, using our Organisation Data Service (ODS). 

This ORD-compatible API contains the full dataset from ODS, including information on succession (history) and relationships.

We also have an ODS FHIR API which contains a reduced dataset, most useful for transactions.

You can:

• search for organisations
• get the organisation details for a given ODS code
• get a list of recently modified organisations
• get metadata for roles, relationships and record classes
• get a list of organisations that have been modified since a specific date to synchronise data locally

An ODS code is a unique identification code for an organisation that interacts with any area of the NHS. For a full list of the organisation types available, see CSV downloads. 

This API returns the following full dataset for an organisation, when searched with an ODS code:

• organisation - ODS code, name, open date, close  date, last change date and status if active or inactive
• address - house or flat number, line 1, line 2, line 3, town, postcode and country
• contacts - email, website, telephone and fax
• roles - primary and non-primary roles
• relationships - legal and operational relationships including history where it was captured by ODS
• succession - history of legal succession following reconfiguration or mergers
• additional attributes - data items included to support policy and pragmatic change

For the scope of data coverage of the ODS APIs, see Organisation Data Service - data coverage.

This API can only be used to support the delivery of health and social care.

The following API also gives access to the Organisation Reference Data:

• ODS Organisation Data Service - FHIR API - use this API to access a reduced dataset of the full ODS record, providing a simple way to support health transactions and interoperability.

The following API is also related to this API:

• Spine Directory Service - FHIR API - Use this API to access ASID information and messaging endpoint details in the Spine Directory Service (SDS) using our FHIR-conformant API.

This API is in production.

To see our roadmap, or to suggest, comment or vote on features for this API, see our interactive product backlog.

If you have any other queries, contact us.

This API is a bronze service, meaning it is operational and supported only during business hours (8am to 6pm), Monday to Friday excluding bank holidays.

For more details, see service levels.

This API is a REST API.

Response payloads conform to the Organisation Reference Data (ORD) information standard (DCB0090), and you can choose to receive either JSON or XML.

This API is available on the internet and, indirectly, on the Health and Social Care Network (HSCN).

This API is open-access, which means:

• we do not authenticate or authorise the calling application

• we do not authenticate or authorise the end user - they might not even be present

We generally use open-access APIs for public data, where security is not a concern. Our open-access APIs are generally RESTful APIs. For more details on how to access them, see our open-access REST API tutorial.

For example:

https://uat.directory.spineservices.nhs.uk/ORD/2-0-0/organisations/RJY
returns the full dataset for the organisation with ODS code RJY.

Integration testing

You can use the UAT environment to perform your integration testing.

This API is open-access, and there is no onboarding process or assurance required.

The following table summarises the endpoints of this API.

For additional guidance on using the ODS ORD API, including data definitions, creating a baseline for a local copy of the ORD dataset, and the APIs endpoint details, see technical guidance - ORD.