File Attachments Release 2 INT returns AVAILABLE in A025/A005

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

Hi,

We’re testing out our handling of the Release 2 file-attachment availability statuses and it seems the AvailabilityStatus returned is always AVAILABLE, on both A025 (Retrieve A&G conversation) and A005 (Retrieve referral request).

We uploaded a standard EICAR antivirus test file (eicar.txt) directly via the e-RS web UI once against an A&G request and once against a referral then retrieved them via A025 and A005 respectively.

Availability Status - Available

  1. The DocumentReference for the EICAR file carries AVAILABLE in both A025 and A005:
"extension": [
  {
    "url": "https://fhir.nhs.uk/STU3/StructureDefinition/Extension-eRS-AvailabilityStatus-1",
    "valueCoding": {
      "code": "AVAILABLE",
      "system": "https://fhir.nhs.uk/STU3/CodeSystem/eRS-AvailabilityStatus-1"
    }
  }
],
"contentType": "text/plain",
"url": "Binary/<redacted-uuid>",
"size": 68,
"title": "eicar.txt",
"creation": "2026-06-04"
  1. The e-RS web UI itself correctly recognises the threat it shows the attachment as Status: Virus detected / Action: Not Available (screenshot below). So the malware scan has clearly completed and e-RS knows the file is quarantined. Also A006 (Retrieve attachment) on that same Binary returns 422 THREATS_FOUND.
    image
    image

Could you please confirm whether the availability-status rollout went live on INT on 2 June as documented?

Thanks!

2

Good Morning, a fix was put into INT last night, please could you retest and let us know the result. Thanks

3

Hi George,

Thanks for the fix. I re-tested this morning on a brand-new A&G and a new EICAR file and I’m getting the same behaviour:

  • A025 (Retrieve A&G conversation) response returns status AVAILABLE:
"extension": [{
  "url": "https://fhir.nhs.uk/STU3/StructureDefinition/Extension-eRS-AvailabilityStatus-1",
  "valueCoding": {"code": "AVAILABLE", "system": "https://fhir.nhs.uk/STU3/CodeSystem/eRS-AvailabilityStatus-1"}
}],
"contentType": "text/plain", "url": "Binary/54077184-14d4-4571-a2c7-4602c9ba9150",
"size": 68, "title": "eicar.txt", "creation": "2026-06-05"
  • A006 (Retrieve attachment) on that same Binary/54077184-… returns 422 THREATS_FOUND.

Request id and correlation id for the A025 call (UBRN 000049830254) in case it helps:

  • X-Request-Id: 2adc5f3d-541a-461a-b449-d95eb4afabad-1
  • X-Correlation-Id: 41575c19-d987-430f-8ace-7a59c228d4ba

Many thanks
Gareth

4

Hi Gareth, thanks for the info. I will look into this now.

5

Hi Gareth,
The availability status rollout hasn’t been released yet for A025 endpoint, apologies. We have someone on our team working on it at the moment and I will let you know when this change has been made. Many thanks,
George

6

Hi @gareth.perkins

A little update on this query.

As per File attachments - Release 2 - NHS England Digital, all remaining endpoints will be available in int environment for partner testing on the 15th of July with the production release being the 14th of August, both subject to testing.

I hope this helps.

George