Access Control Service HL7 V3 API

Use this API to access the Access Control Service (ACS) - which manages consent to share patient information, including their SCR.

GP systems must check consent to share before sharing, for example, a patient's Summary Care Record (SCR).

You can:

• get the access permissions for a patient's documents, including their SCR
• set access permissions on a patient's documents, including their SCR

Note the Summary Care Record - FHIR API also has endpoints enabling you to get and set access permissions, the same as this ACS API.

A healthcare worker must be present and authenticated with an NHS smartcard or a modern alternative to use this API.

This API can only be used where there is a legal basis to do so. Make sure you have a valid use case before you go too far with your development.

You must do this before you can go live (see ‘Onboarding’ below).

The following APIs are related to this one:

• Summary Care Record - FHIR API - use this API to access a patient's Summary Care Record (SCR), an electronic record of important patient information created from GP medical records, using our FHIR API. It also has endpoints enabling you to get and set access permissions, the same as this ACS API.
• Summary Care Record - HL7 V3 API - use this API to access a patient's Summary Care Record (SCR), an electronic record of important patient information created from GP medical records, using our HL7 V3 API.

This API is in production, but under review for deprecation.  We will contact you before agreeing to a retirement date.

This API is a platinum service, meaning it is operational and supported 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

For more details, see service levels.

This API is an HL7 V3 API.

It uses synchronous interactions, using HL7 V3 SOAP web services, for example:

• Get resource permissions - to get the permissions on a patient's documents
• Set resource permissions - set the access permissions on a patient's documents

For more details, see HL7 V3.

You need a Health and Social Care Network (HSCN) connection to use this API.

For more details, see Network access for APIs.

Authentication

This API is user-restricted, meaning an end user must be present and authenticated to use it.

The end user must be:

• a healthcare worker
• strongly authenticated, using either an NHS smartcard or a modern alternative

We support the following security patterns:

• user-restricted HL7 V3 API, using NHS Care Identity Service 2 (NHS CIS2)
• user-restricted HL7 V3 API, using CIS

For more details see user-restricted APIs.

Authorisation

For some activities, the end user must be authorised to perform that activity.

The API itself does not perform any authorisation checks. Rather, the calling system is expected to perform them. The authorisation rules are specified in our national Role Based Access Control (RBAC) database.

For more details see our national Role Based Access Control (RBAC) database.

You can test this API using our Path to Live environments.

You must get your software onboarded before it can go live.

Contact us before onboarding with this API. It uses the Common Assurance Process (CAP) which is tailored for each NHS service.

For details of interactions for this API see part 11 of the Spine External Interface Specification.

For details on the general structure of the interactions, see HL7 V3.