# Retrieve referral request (A005, FHIR STU3) -- can attachments be \> 1?

**URL:** <https://developer.community.nhs.uk/t/retrieve-referral-request-a005-fhir-stu3-can-attachments-be-1/8082>\
**Category:** e-Referral Service (e-RS)\
**Tags:** fhir\
**Created:** [9 October 2025 15:22 UTC](https://developer.community.nhs.uk/t/retrieve-referral-request-a005-fhir-stu3-can-attachments-be-1/8082 "2025-10-09T15:22:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mungles2025](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@mungles2025](https://developer.community.nhs.uk/u/mungles2025)\
**Post date:** [9 October 2025 15:22 UTC](https://developer.community.nhs.uk/t/retrieve-referral-request-a005-fhir-stu3-can-attachments-be-1/8082/1 "2025-10-09T15:22:39Z")

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Under the ‘Documents’ returned by this endpoint, under what circumstances do we expect there to be more that one attachment per document?

The FHIR schema specifies min items: 1.

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**Author:** ![zubeir.tai](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/nhsdigitaldeveloper/user_avatar/developer.community.nhs.uk/zubeir.tai/32/413_2.png) [@zubeir.tai](https://developer.community.nhs.uk/u/zubeir.tai)\
**Post date:** [10 October 2025 09:26 UTC](https://developer.community.nhs.uk/t/retrieve-referral-request-a005-fhir-stu3-can-attachments-be-1/8082/2 "2025-10-10T09:26:39Z")

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Very much dependent on the referrer and the nature of the referral being requested.

Referrers will attach files as required for the receiver to review and assess.

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**Author:** ![mungles2025](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@mungles2025](https://developer.community.nhs.uk/u/mungles2025)\
**Post date:** [10 October 2025 12:25 UTC](https://developer.community.nhs.uk/t/retrieve-referral-request-a005-fhir-stu3-can-attachments-be-1/8082/3 "2025-10-10T12:25:59Z")

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@zubeir.tai Thanks for your quick reply.

I mean that under the response schema in A005, there are ‘documents’ and also ‘attachments’ under the documents.

I understand that it will frequently occur that there may be multiple documents associated with a request, but what about multiple attachments per document? The response schema suggests that this could be the case because ‘attachments’ is an array.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![zubeir.tai](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/nhsdigitaldeveloper/user_avatar/developer.community.nhs.uk/zubeir.tai/32/413_2.png) [@zubeir.tai](https://developer.community.nhs.uk/u/zubeir.tai)\
**Post date:** [13 October 2025 09:26 UTC](https://developer.community.nhs.uk/t/retrieve-referral-request-a005-fhir-stu3-can-attachments-be-1/8082/4 "2025-10-13T09:26:46Z")

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Hi @mungles2025 - Each document reference is one file attachment.