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Terminology and identifiers

Mandatory foundations where scoped

Standard Primary-care sharing contribution
NHS Number for General Practice (ISB 0149-01) Unambiguous patient identification and matching in GP systems and exchanges.
SNOMED CT (SCCI0034) Common clinical meaning across structured records and direct-care settings.
NHS dictionary of medicines and devices (SCCI0052) Standard identifiers and descriptions for electronic medicines information exchanged for direct care.
UK Core FHIR R4 Governance (DAPB4020) Governance for consistent UK Core profiling when sharing across organisational and system boundaries.

Evidence: SRC-016, SRC-017, SRC-018, SRC-022.

Conformance is end-to-end

Sending a valid code is insufficient if the receiving workflow:

  • uses the wrong patient or cannot resolve identity conflicts;
  • loses display terms, units, effective dates, provenance or negation;
  • silently maps an unsupported code;
  • confuses current, historical, intended and stopped medicines;
  • cannot surface uncertainty or correct the source;
  • relies on a code-system or profile version outside the agreed contract.

Record code system, edition/version, profile, binding strength, fallback behaviour, validation results and migration plan in the flow’s standards decision.