Improving the quality of address updates

We are currently testing improvements to the way that address updates are stored in the Personal Demographics Service (PDS).

Going forwards, when PDS is notified of an address change, it will identify whether or not this is an ‘actual’ address update. This means any change to the substance of the data in the address, such as a change in postcode. If it's an actual update, it will be applied as normal.

However, if the update doesn’t contain any ‘actual’ changes to data, such as when all that is being changed is the casing of the address lines, PDS will filter this update out and keep the address as it is.

These changes will affect updates coming from all systems that integrate with PDS. The filtering is designed to be ‘silent’, meaning that it will not adversely affect systems that integrate with PDS.

This change is being made after a high volume of ‘no real change’ updates being submitted to PDS.

Filtering out these updates will provide the following benefits:

• the address history on PDS records will be cleaner, as all address updates will be substantive updates
• clinical systems with a local version of a record will have a lower number of needless synchronisations to perform with PDS - this will reduce the administrative burden for health and care professionals

For more information and to offer feedback, contact [email protected].