Why is it necessary to call "A029 - Available actions for user list" endpoint for the RAS flow?

e-Referral Service (e-RS)
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Before recording the triage outcome for a triage referral (RAS - Referral assessment service), it is documented at Receive and review referrals as a service provider - NHS Digital that:

It is advisable to check ahead of performing a triage outcome, whether or not the action is permitted via the A029 - Available actions for user list endpoint.

I have also reviewed e-Referral Service - FHIR API - NHS Digital and I can see that not calling this endpoint may lead to “potential failure flows.” The thing is, when calling the “A028 - Record triage outcome” endpoint, failure handling for error responses will need to be built in anyway.

I can imagine that calling A029 ahead of A028 can improve user experience by not enabling on the UI the functionality to record triage outcome if the action is not returned by A029. I’m curious if there are other reasons for this.

Thanks in advance!

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Hi @jeffriab,

Yes, user experience is the main reason for using A029. It is also not always possible to determine from the result of A005 alone if A029 is allowed for a referral.

If a referral isn’t in the correct state for A029 then the API will reject the request. However, we would prefer partners where possible validate if an API call is applicable before making the call.

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Thank you, @adam.oldfield !