403 on Retrieve attachment (A042, FHIR R4)

e-Referral Service (e-RS) e-Referral Service FHIR API
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1

Hello,

We are getting some 403s when hitting Retrieve Attachment API (link).

With the message:

"eRS response [1/1]: {\"resourceType\":\"OperationOutcome\",\"meta\":{\"lastUpdated\":\"2026-08-24T08:16:24.324Z\",\"profile\":[\"https://www.hl7.org/fhir/R4/operationoutcome.html\"]},\"issue\":[{\"severity\":\"error\",\"code\":\"forbidden\",\"diagnostics\":\"Cannot generate shared URL for download from location: nhsd-ers-fileattachments-production-staging, upload ID <DOCUMENT_ID HERE>\",\"details\":{\"coding\":[{\"system\":\"https://fhir.nhs.uk/CodeSystem/http-error-codes\",\"code\":\"REC_FORBIDDEN\"}]}}]}"

Correlation ID: 4e3752b7-4df8-4dfd-aa76-00d8973810df

Our service had been running for a while, so it’s nothing that we changed. The errors started on Friday 21 at 9pm.

2

@Benjamin_Michel Which environment is this in please? :slight_smile:

3

Hi Tony,
It’s for prod environment.

Here is another example:
Correlation ID: 7cc0de84-553c-4c48-86bb-a466af52085f
Response:

{\"resourceType\":\"OperationOutcome\",\"meta\":{\"lastUpdated\":\"2026-08-24T09:56:37.548Z\",\"profile\":[\"https://www.hl7.org/fhir/R4/operationoutcome.html\"]},\"issue\":[{\"severity\":\"error\",\"code\":\"forbidden\",\"diagnostics\":\"Cannot generate shared URL for download from location: nhsd-ers-fileattachments-production-staging, upload ID <DOCUMENT_ID HERE>\",\"details\":{\"coding\":[{\"system\":\"https://fhir.nhs.uk/CodeSystem/http-error-codes\",\"code\":\"REC_FORBIDDEN\"}]}}]}
4

Hi @Benjamin_Michel

If it’s production please can you create a national service desk ticket. This is managed by live service team.

One thing to note, there was a deployment on Friday - the service might have been down for a period in which some of the issue occured.

https://digital.nhs.uk/services/e-referral-service/live-service-information-and-alerts

5

Thank you. I raised a ticket here: Customer Service Portal - Customer Support

6

Thanks @Benjamin_Michel I’m marking this topic as resolved (but not inferring it is resolved, just that it will follow the national service desk process)

7

This is impacting live referrals, so could you increase the ticket priority?

8

Hi Benjamin - you’d need to respond via service now we are outside of this process, hopefully they can then give you a status update