Medical Records: Northern Ireland

(asked on 8th January 2024) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason NHS numbers issued in Northern Ireland are not transferable to England.


Answered by
Andrew Stephenson Portrait
Andrew Stephenson
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 11th January 2024

There has never been a single National Health Service number system across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Prior to the introduction of the current 10-digit format NHS number in 1995/96, there were 22 different NHS number formats in existence; one of these was the Northern Ireland NHS number format. The rationalisation that took place introduced the common format we have now. Whilst a common format NHS number is in use there has never been a decision for a single database operating across both authorities.

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