Patient Flags Service uses non-existent FHIR resource endpoint

General enquiries
1

digital.nhs.uk/developer/api-catalogue/patient-flags-service---fhir-api#get-/PatientFlag

There is no such resource as PatientFlag and no such endpoint is allowed.

Also the mime type specified is wrong for FHIR: application/json. It needs to be application/fhir+json

FHIR can be extended in conformant ways, but not in the way proposed.

But is custom behaviour needed?
This, as proposed: GET /PatientFlag?patient=9449306753

is possible in a FHIR conformant way already by just doing this:
GET /Flag?patient.identifier=9449306753

1 Like
2

A working example is here:
e.g. https://server.fire.ly/Flag?patient.identifier=9449306753
(or see this view: https://vhewer.com/?url=https://server.fire.ly/Flag?patient.identifier=9449306753)

If some custom behaviour really is needed (though it seems not), a custom operation would be more appropriate, using the dollar prefix e.g. GET /$PatientFlags

3

Is anyone from NHS England able to provide feedback on this?

It would be really useful to understand whether the strategy of implementing pseudo-resources such as PatientFlag is going to be pursued. This has significant implications for how implementers work with national APIs as they may not be able to use standard FHIR packages.