Spine supports the IT infrastructure for health and social care in England, joining together over 23,000 healthcare IT systems in 20,500 organisations.
Spine portal
Access Spine through the portal. (N3 Smartcard users)
Spine technical information: Warranted Environment Specification (WES)
Check your IT system and environment are supported for accessing Spine systems with a smartcard. (IT infrastructure staff and system suppliers)
National service desk weblog tool
Raise a technical or support call for Spine (log-in and N3 access required)
Spine allows information to be shared securely through national services such as the Electronic Prescription Service, Summary Care Record and the e-Referral Service.
NHS Digital develops and maintains Spine through the Digital Delivery Centre. Recent developments include enabling the sharing of child protection information via the Child Protection Information System, and developing ways to allow easier access to demographic data through the Spine Mini Service.
Most users access Spine through clinical systems or through the Spine portal.
New ways are being developed to help systems suppliers design IT systems for health and care which can integrate with Spine or access important patient information. Contact the Digital Delivery Centre for more information by emailing enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk.
You can get support by calling the National Service Desk on 0300 3035035 or raising a call using the national service desk tool.
Developers can test health and care applications using our Spine test environment.
Information for developers and health and care IT specialists
The technical requirements for accessing NHS Digital services through Spine, with a smartcard. Find out if your environment is supported.
Information for developers - message definitions and interactions required to support the rollout of the Child Protection Information Sharing (CP-IS) Spine Mini Service.
