A005 returns invalid JSON object

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

Hi,

Since 24/08/2026 when validating the response body from a call to A005 using the FhirJsonDeserializer from the Hl7.Fhir.STU3 v6.4.0 NuGet package we have been getting a deserilization exception. This is due to the Description property in the DocumentReference resource being an empty string. Below is a truncated example of a response body that causes the exception:
{
“resourceType”: “ReferralRequest”,
…
“contained”: [
{
“id”: “DocumentReference-155233”,
“meta”: {
“profile”: [
“https://fhir.nhs.uk/STU3/StructureDefinition/eRS-DocumentReference-1”
]
},
“resourceType”: “DocumentReference”,
“type”: {
“coding”: [
{
“code”: “REFERRER”,
“system”: “https://fhir.nhs.uk/STU3/CodeSystem/eRS-AttachmentType-1”,
“display”: “Referrer”
}
]
},
“status”: “current”,
“indexed”: “2026-09-04T07:57:51.629Z”,
“description”: “”,
…**
**
FHIR documentation states that “String property values can never be empty. Either the property is absent, or it is present with at least one character of content”. Therefore in this case the description property should not be present.

We can patch our code to ignore the error or add a dummy description where none exists so the JSON can be successfully deserialized and the attachment download, but do you have any idea what might have caused this issue?

2

Hi Neil, could you confirm the environment you have found this issue in? Thanks,

George

3

Hi,
We’ve found this to be an issue in both the Integration and Production environments. We’ve not tested it in the Sandbox.
Cheers
Neil

4

Thanks Neil, I am looking into this one now, seems like a small defect. However for now you should be alright to ignore the empty description on your end as a temporary workaround.