Information Specification

Core Reference Data is reference data about the persons, organisations, and services for use in NHS Wales.

The data is distributed and uploaded to health IT systems. It supports user security, access control, messaging and is used as reference data for both operations and reporting.

NHS Wales reference data is issued to users via the Welsh Reference Data Service. Reference data are made available via the Welsh Reference Data Service website at:

*To be used only for recording the sex of a baby prior to the sex being determined as F or M.

†Note that, in any system implementation of this value set, the context in which the information is being collected must be clear to the user inputting the information, e.g. sex at birth. By law, a person’s previous sex or gender identity must not be disclosed without their explicit consent. Information which could be used to disclose a person’s sex must not be captured alongside their gender information within the demographic record, and must be stored separately, e.g. as part of their clinical record.

Where the first character (A) is a value taken from the list in the table below, and the second character (B) is a locally defined value to be used in conjunction with the nationally defined values. If no further local breakdown is required, the second character (B) should be filled with a ‘Z’. Note that for the Substance Misuse and Maternity Indicators data set, only the first character (A) is submitted.

The relevant list of languages is defined by ISO 639. Note that the recording of language information should support one of or both lists defined by ISO 639-1 and 639-3 standards. This is dependent on the requirement to record languages associated with macrolanguages, e.g. Mandarin (defined in 639-3) and Chinese (639-1), as well as sign languages (639-3).

Note that this Standard should be used in conjunction with the associated Sensory Loss Communication Need Standard defined in DSCN 2018 / 01 in order to capture the method of communication, e.g. for non-spoken languages such as Braille and Makaton. Where a language is not known or if the patient has no spoken/written language, the following values can be used:

The specific code format as specified by the Office of National statistics (ONS) is:

This allows a space to be inserted to differentiate between the inward and outward segments of the code, enabling full use to be made of the Royal Mail postcode functionality.

There are occasions when the use of a 'pseudo code' is necessary, particularly when dealing with an overseas address. Full details of pseudo country codes and other codes may be obtained from the Office of National Statistics website. Some of the more common pseudo codes are:

UK Postcodes are available via the Welsh Reference Data Service (WRDS): http://wrds.wales.nhs.uk/ (NHS Wales Users Only)

For a person who does not wish to be known by any title or wishes to be known by a title that is not listed below, the field should be left blank.

Note: All the above titles should be available for anyone to choose. The choice of titles available should not be restricted by a person’s sex or gender.

Organisation and site codes are configured with consensus across the UK NHS home countries and published for use by NHS Digital via the Organisation Data Service (ODS).

Codes as listed by the Organisation Data Service are configured to a set of specified coding frames¹, according to organisation type. Welsh health board and trust organisation codes are defined by ODS coding frame B, as illustrated in the table below.

Codes for Welsh organisations are available via the Welsh Reference Data Service (WRDS): http://wrds.wales.nhs.uk/ (NHS Wales Users Only)

Organisation and site codes are configured with consensus across the UK NHS home countries and published for use by NHS Digital via the Organisation Data Service (ODS).

Codes as listed by the Organisation Data Service are configured to a set of specified coding frames, according to organisation type. Welsh health board and trust organisation site codes are defined by ODS coding frame B, as illustrated in the table below.

Codes for Welsh organisations are available via the Welsh Reference Data Service (WRDS): http://wrds.wales.nhs.uk/ (NHS Wales Users Only)

GP practice codes are configured with consensus across the UK NHS home countries and published for use by NHS Digital via the Organisation Data Service (ODS).

Codes as listed by the Organisation Data Service are configured to a set of specified coding frames, according to organisation type. GP practice codes are defined by ODS coding frame G, as illustrated in the table below.

*V81997 should only be used where a patient presents who is not currently registered at a GP Practice.

**V81998 should be used where a patient would not have a registered practice, for instance an overseas patient.

***V81999 should only be used where it is not possible to determine a patient’s registered practice code, for instance the patient cannot communicate and is unidentifiable.

Codes for Welsh GP practices are available via the Welsh Reference Data Service (WRDS): http://wrds.wales.nhs.uk/ (NHS Wales Users Only)

Dental practice codes are configured with consensus across the UK NHS home countries and published for use by NHS Digital via the Organisation Data Service (ODS).

Codes as listed by the Organisation Data Service are configured to a set of specified coding frames, according to organisation type. Dental practice codes are defined by ODS coding frame G, as illustrated in the table below.

**Characters 2 to 6 are the last 5 digits of the Location ID taken from a Provider Dentist Contract number

Codes for Welsh GP practices are available via the Welsh Reference Data Service (WRDS): http://wrds.wales.nhs.uk/ (NHS Wales Users Only)

The General Medical Practitioner Code is the GP Code used as the GP Prescribing reference by the prescribing authority.

In England and Wales, General Medical Practitioner codes begin with the prefix letter G with the following format.

The check digit is then the unit digit (last digit) of the result of this calculation.

NHS UK General Practitioners Reference Data are available via the Welsh Reference Data Service (WRDS): http://wrds.wales.nhs.uk/ (NHS Wales Users Only)

A care professional contracted by a Health Care Provider who has been appointed by a consultant’s appointment committee.

He or she must be a member of a Royal College or Faculty. This includes general medical practitioners in cases where a general medical practitioner is responsible for patient care and has an arrangement with the Health Care Provider.

The Consultant Code is derived from either the General Medical Council reference number for general medical practitioners, or the General Dental Council registration number for general dental practitioners.

Note that General Dental Council registration numbers vary in length from 5 to 6 characters.

Filling zeros are used between the prefix and General Dental Council registration number, where required, to maintain total length of 8 characters.

For further information, please refer to the Dental Consultants in England (PDF) guidance document issued by the Organisation Data Service.

NHS Wales Consultants and Private Consultants Reference Data are available via the Welsh Reference Data Service (WRDS): http://wrds.wales.nhs.uk/ (NHS Wales Users Only)

A nurse is a care professional whose name is registered by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

A nurse pin number is a code that uniquely identifies a nurse on the Nursing and Midwifery Council Register.

NHS Wales Nurses’ Reference Data are available via the Welsh Reference Data Service (WRDS): http://wrds.wales.nhs.uk/ (NHS Wales Users Only)

An allied health professional is a care professional whose name is registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). An Allied Health Practitioner (AHP) Code is alpha numeric, with the first two to three alpha characters indicating the profession, followed by 5 to 6 numeric characters.

NHS Wales Allied Health Professionals’ reference data are available via the Welsh Reference Data Service (WRDS): http://wrds.wales.nhs.uk/ (NHS Wales Users Only)

This is the specialty under which the patient will be or is treated and is based on the list of specialties defined by the Royal Colleges. This may or may not match the specialty recorded as a consultant's main specialty and should be assigned irrespective of the type of care professional responsible.

Main or Consultant Specialty

A unique code identifying each Main Specialty designated by Royal Colleges.

Specialties are divisions of clinical work which may be defined by body systems (dermatology), age (paediatrics), clinical technology (nuclear medicine), clinical function (rheumatology), group of diseases (oncology) or combinations of these factors. Only Specialty titles recognised by the Royal Colleges and Faculties should be used. This list is maintained by the General and Specialist Medical Practice (Education, Training and Qualifications) Order 2003 and European Primary and Specialist Dental Qualifications Regulations 1998.

Each consultant should be assigned a Main Specialty by the organisation to which the consultant is contracted. For physicians and surgeons with a generalist component to their work, the Main Specialty should be General Medicine or General Surgery. The Main Specialty is specific to a Health Care Provider. If, for example, a consultant physician working in two Health Care Providers has a generalist component to the work in one and not the other, General Medicine is only assigned as the Main Specialty in the former case. Consultants in general medicine or general surgery may also have specialist interests and these should be recorded as well as the Main Specialty.

The source of this information should be the designation on the consultant's contract. This should be checked periodically against the work a consultant is actually doing so that the statistics can relate to a consultant's current type of work.

The Main Specialty should only be used for the purpose of generating Health Resource Groups (HRGs) for financial costing and for workforce statistics. Other specialist interests of consultants may be recorded for workforce planning purposes.

The Main Specialty code for general practitioners is General Medical Practice or General Dental Practice.

Joint Consultant Clinic activity should be recorded against the Main Specialty code of the consultant managing the clinic.

A full list of these codes can be found at:

http://www.datadictionary.wales.nhs.uk/#!WordDocuments/mainspecialtyconsultant.htm

Format: 3 digit numeric

Details	Data Item
Person	Religion
	Marital Status
	Sex
	Gender Identity
	Ethnicity
	Language
	Postcode
	Title
Organisation	Organisation Code
	Organisation Site Code
	GP Practice Code
	Dental Practice Code
Care Professional	General Medical Practitioner Code
	Consultant Code
	Nurse Pin Number
	Allied Health Professional Code
Specialty	Treatment Specialty
Specialty	Main or Consultant Specialty

Code	Description
11	Single
12	Cohabiting
21	Married
22	Civil Partner
31	Divorced
32	Person whose Civil Partnership has been dissolved
41	Widowed
42	Surviving Civil Partner
51	Separated
91	Not disclosed or unknown

Code	Description
F	Female
U	Indeterminate*
M	Male
Z	Not disclosed or unknown, e.g. for unborn baby

Code	Description
F	Female
M	Male
N	Non-binary*
Z	Not disclosed or unknown, e.g. for unborn baby

Code	Description
	WHITE
A	Any White Background, including Welsh, English, Scottish, Northern Irish, British, Irish
B	Gypsy or Irish Traveller
	MIXED/MULTIPLE ETHNIC GROUP
D	White and Black Caribbean
E	White and Black African
F	White and Asian
G	Any other mixed background / multiple ethnic background
	ASIAN OR ASIAN BRITISH
H	Indian
J	Pakistani
K	Bangladeshi
R	Chinese
L	Any other Asian background
	BLACK OR BLACK BRITISH
M	Caribbean
N	African
P	Any other Black background
	OTHER ETHNIC GROUPS
T	Arab
S	Any other ethnic group
	NOT STATED
Z	Not stated

Code	Description
ZZ99 3VZ	No fixed abode
ZZ99 3CZ	England/UK not otherwise specified
ZZ99 3GZ	Wales not otherwise specified
ZZ99 1WZ	Scotland not otherwise specified
ZZ99 2WZ	Northern Ireland not otherwise specified

Code	Description
Admr	Admiral
Baron	Baron
Brig	Brigadier
Bshp	Bishop
Can	Canon
Capt	Captain
Col	Colonel
Dame	Dame
Dr	Doctor
Ftr	Father
Lady	Lady
Lord	Lord
Miss	Miss
Mjr	Major
Mr	Mr
Mrs	Mrs
Ms	Ms
Mstr	Master
Mx	Mx
Prof	Professor
Rev	Reverend
Sgt	Sergeant
Sir	Sir
Sstr	Sister
a blank value	< Unknown / None / Other >

Character Position	1	2	3	4	5
Format	a/n	a/n	a/n
Local Health Board (Wales)	7	A-9	A-9
NHS Trust	R	A-9	A-9
B FRAME	Organisation Type Identifier

Code	Description
89997	Non-UK provider where no organisation code has been issued
89999	Non-NHS UK provider where no organisation code has been requested and issued

Character Position	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Format	A-H, J-N, P, W & Y	0-9	0-9	0-9	0-9	0-9	0-9
G FRAME	Organisation Type Identifier	Practice Identifier

Code	Description
V81997	No registered GP Practice*
V81998	Practice not applicable. i.e. MOD or Prison GP**
V81999	Practice code is unknown***

Practitioner Code Type	Character Position
Practitioner Code Type	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Hospital Consultant*	C	0-9	0-9	0-9	0-9	0-9	0-9	0-9
Dental Consultant**	D	D	0-9	0-9	0-9	0-9	0-9	0-9

AS	Arts Therapist
BS	Biomedical Specialist
CH	Chiropodist / Podiatrist
CS	Clinical Scientist
DT	Dietician
HA	Hearing Aid Dispenser
OT	Occupational Therapist
ODP	Operating Department Practitioner
OR	Orthoptist
PA	Paramedic
PH	Physiotherapist
PYL	Practitioner Psychologist
PO	Prosthetist/Orthotist
RA	Radiographer
SL	Speech and Language Therapist