API integration for gp email notifications

Personal Demographics Service (PDS) Personal Demographics Service FHIR API
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Hello,

I am a technical manager at an online pharmacy service currently exploring ways to securely notify GP practices about private consultations such as contraception or weight management.

Our planned workflow is to use the PDS API to retrieve a patient’s registered GP ODS code, then use that ODS code to find the corresponding GP contact details through the Directory of Services (DoS) API, ideally including an NHSmail address. This would allow us to send structured consultation summaries to GPs securely in cases where GP Connect Update Record is not available.

Could you please advise on:

  1. Whether this planned use case would qualify for EPS DoS API access

  2. The correct onboarding route for pharmacy providers with DSP Toolkit compliance and an ODS code

  3. Whether the DoS API allows queries using only an ODS code to return NHSmail or other contact details

We do not have any integrations set up yet and are trying to confirm the correct direction before development begins.

Thank you,

Usama

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Hi Usama,

I’m following up to see if you have received a response from other channels regarding this yet. It might be worth reaching out to PDS and EPS DoS API teams directly for more specific advice.

Based on what you have described, the recommended directions to explore are:

  1. Yes – using the Personal Demographics Service (PDS) FHIR API to retrieve a patient’s registered GP practice (via the GP ODS code held in the patient’s GP registration details) is the correct and supported approach, provided you have:
  • A valid legal basis for access
  • User-restricted or application-restricted access approved for your use case
  • Completed onboarding (DSP Toolkit, ODS code, etc.)
  1. The Directory of Services (DoS) API is not designed to act as a general directory for GP practice contact details, and not guaranteed to return:
  • GP NHSmail addresses or general-purpose administrative or clinical email contacts.
  • Queries are typically based on:
    • Service types
    • Care settings
    • Geography and availability
    • Referral roles

While DoS records may sometimes contain contact information, it is probably not the right API to reliably discover GP NHSmail addresses using only an ODS code.

  1. Pharmacy onboarding route (ODS + DSP Toolkit)

As an online pharmacy, the expected onboarding baseline is:

  • Organisation has a valid ODS code
  • DSP Toolkit completed to the appropriate level
  • Application registered on the NHS API Platform
  • Explicit approval for each API

This would allow access to APIs such as PDS if the use case is approved – but it does not automatically enable access to GP messaging or contact details.

The first steps would be to try to get an agreement with local operational process with GP practices or the relevant ICB, potentially using NHSmail under local agreements (outside of national NHS APIs).

Hope the above helps.

Thanks,

NHS England API Platform team

Please note: The API Platform team can only address queries relevant to the NHS England API platform, including security, rate limiting, logging, monitoring and alerting. For any API, CIS2, NHS Login specific queries, please reach out the relevant API / Service teams.

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