Message Exchange for Social Care and Health (MESH)

Organisations must have separate mailboxes for each use case to maintain the security of the data being sent and received.

MESH is available over the internet, though some tasks require a connection to Spine infrastructure over the HSCN.

MESH can send files of any type, for many different purposes. For example, MESH could be used by:

• a pathology lab using MESH to communicate test results to GP practices
• a hospital sending and receiving notifications to adult social services to identify patients who need adult social care when they leave hospital, in line with the Care Act 2014

If you need to use MESH yourself to send files, through the client or UI, you’ll usually need technical support. We recommend you get in touch with your organisation’s IT team first.

If you’re a software developer and are interested in using the MESH API, you might want to start by looking at the MESH API documentation.

If you're interested in using MESH within your service you first need to consider which MESH product you wish to use then apply for a MESH mailbox.

More about the MESH products

We have three types of MESH to suit different organisational needs and requirements.

1. MESH User Interface (UI) - ideal for organisations sending or receiving small files (under 50MB over the internet and under 100MB over HSCN).
2. MESH Client - ideal for organisations sending or receiving large files (up to 20GB), such as GP sites, trusts, private NHS providers.
3. MESH Application Programming Interface (API) - MESH API is a restful API ideal for organisations who have the technical skills to integrate MESH into their systems.

If you choose the wrong MESH product, or you have difficulty implementing a particular product, you can switch to a different method later in the process.

This begins the process of implementing MESH in your service. You need to provide information about:

• your organisation
• the people responsible for managing your MESH mailbox
• the workflow groups and IDs associated with the messages you're sending

Workflow groups and IDs determine and identify the type of message you can send or receive via that mailbox. Read our guidance on Workflow Groups and Workflow IDs before beginning your MESH mailbox application.

We also offer a number of testing or 'Path to Live' environments. These can be used by end users for training purposes or by software developers testing your MESH implementation.

If you are contacting us for the first time you might want to request one of our Path to Live environments. You can return to request a live mailbox later when you're ready.

Contact the National Service Desk at support.digitalservices@nhs.net or call 0300 30 35 035 for any technical or service issues and general enquiries including requests to be added to the distribution list for regular updates to service suppliers and users.

For testing related enquiries about MESH contact Solutions Assurance at sa.servicedesk@nhs.net.

Customers can also raise a query via our Customer Service portal.