The Message Exchange for Social Care and Health (MESH) is the main secure large file transfer service used across health and social care organisations.
- a .dat file - this is the data file (payload) and contains the data you wish to send
You can create a .dat file by
- adding on the “.dat” extension after the original file type
- or removing the original file type extension and replacing with “.dat”
To access the message, double click on the file to open it.
If the data file has the equivalent of two file extensions (such as xxxx.csv.dat), rename the file to remove the .dat, and the file will open automatically with the correct programme.
For more information, including error messages and failure to send, you should review
Message Exchange for Social Care and Health: client user guide - NHS Digital