NHS numbers for health and social care organisations

General practice

For general practices, NHS numbers help to: 

• accurately link the patient to their record
• transfer patient records electronically using GP2GP
• enable referrals using the NHS e-Referral Service (e-RS
• send electronic prescriptions from GP surgeries to pharmacists using the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS)
• identify patients in all contact with other health and social care providers

NHS trusts

For NHS trusts, NHS numbers help to:

• create and maintain a complete record for each patient
• share patient information safely within and across organisational boundaries
• link babies to their healthcare records for life

Social care organisations

For social care organisations, NHS numbers help to:

• accurately identify service users
• create a complete record, linking every instance of care across health and social care organisations
• safely and efficiently coordinate social care with healthcare

An NHS Number is 10 digits, separated by hyphens or spaces in a 3-3-4 format. For example, 901-234-5678 or 901 234 5678

The 10th digit of an NHS Number is the check digit. This checks that the NHS Number is valid. Find out how to validate the check digit.

We have written an open-source Java client that validates NHS Numbers (opens in a new tab). If you use this client, you should feed in the 10-digit NHS Numbers without hyphens or spaces, for example 9012345678

Authorised NHS staff with a smartcard can access the Personal Demographics Service (PDS) database - this is the national online database for NHS patient information. It's used by NHS staff to identify patients.

Software developers interested in accessing patients' personal information in the PDS database can learn more about our PDS FHIR API.

The standards for the NHS Number are set by ISB 0149: NHS Number.