Administrative Codes and Classifications
  1. Responsible Agencies:
  2. National Administrative Codes Service (NACS):

    NACS is responsible for allocating codes to the following organisations in England and Wales:
    Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs)
    NHS Trusts
    Primary Care Trusts (PCTs)
    Care Trusts (CTs)
    Special Health Authorities (SpHAs)
    Independent Providers (registered and non-registered nursing and residential homes, private hospitals etc.)
    Pathology Laboratories
    Cancer Registries
    Other NHS Administration Units

    Code allocation by other agencies

    Several other UK agencies are responsible for issuing or publishing codes (to NHS standards) to the following healthcare organisations and maintaining their details. These details are made available on the NACS NHSnet website and on a quarterly CD-ROM, distributed by the NACS.

    Prescription Pricing Authority (PPA):
    General Medical Practitioners in England, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands and Wales
    GP Practices in England and Wales

    Dental Practice Board (DPB):
    General Dental Practitioners in England and Wales
    GD Practices in England and Wales

    Health Solutions Wales (HSW):
    All secondary care organisations in Wales

    NHS in Scotland:
    All healthcare organisations and practitioners in Scotland

    DHSSPS, N.Ireland:
    All healthcare organisations and practitioners in Northern Ireland

    Office for National Statistics:
    Responsible for the formal definition of the geographical area covered by each Primary Care Trust (England), in terms of their component postcodes.

    Source: Agencies responsible for allocation of codes on the NACS NHSnet site. For those without NHSnet access, visit the NACs www website for further information NACS or see Publication Information Contact Details.

  3. Administrative codes are used to identify:

  4. -Individual healthcare organisations including independent providers;
    -Dental and Medical Practices;
    -Practitioners, such as GPs, Dental Practitioners and Hospital Consultants.
  5. The codes allow for:

  6. -the identification of information returned to the Department of Health;
    -the identification of the ORGANISATIONS involved in the electronic exchange of information within the NHS;
    -the identification of the parties involved in the commissioning and administration of an episode of care.
  7. The current coding standards were introduced in 1996 by the Organisation Codes Service (OCS), now the National Administrative Codes Service (NACS). Subsequent revisions to the structure and format of organisation codes have given these codes a consistent and stable format. This both reflects the organisational changes in the NHS and protects the codes against future changes to the structure of the NHS.
  8. Codes used in England and Wales to identify organisations in Scotland and Northern Ireland are allocated by agencies working on behalf of the Scottish Office and Northern Ireland Office. These codes meet NHS coding standards and are included on the NACS CD-ROM, issued quarterly to NHS users. Note, however, that different codes may be used locally e.g. in Scotland by Scottish users.
  9. For NHS Trust sites and Primary Care Trust sites, a three character NHS Trust code with a suitable two character suffix is used to compose the site's identification code. For independent sector organisations, where more than three characters are used, the first three characters have no significance.
  10. For CDSs, both the Commissioner and the Provider must be identified by a five character code. If either the Commissioner or the Provider is normally identified by a three character code, then its organisation code may be extended to five characters by the addition of a two zero suffix (00) to create a suitable code, such as RGT00 for a Trust. This should only be used in situations where there is no other 5-character code that can be used.
  11. Only those organisations, with their sub-divisions or sites that are registered within the responsible agencies national list of organisations may be used for commissioning purposes or for routing commissioning data sets (CDSs) over NWCS (ClearNet). NHS and Independent Sector providers which operate Treatment Centres must be able to differentiate each Treatment Centre by the Organisation Site Code. NHS or Independent Sector organisations that wish to include one or more of their sub-divisions or sites on the national register should contact the NACS Help Desk. For the NACS contact details, see Publication Information Contact Details.
  12. Where treatment for a NHS patient is sub-commissioned to a non-NHS UK provider healthcare organisation (independent provider) but that non-NHS UK provider does not have an organisation code or sites registered with a responsible agency, the default value of 89999 should be used.
  13. MEDICAL AND DENTAL PRACTICE CODES
    NHS ADMINISTRATIVE CODES
    NHS ORGANISATION CODES
    PRACTITIONER CODES