Single service search option

Currently, users can perform a search of our Directory of Services (DOS) to find appropriate services for a patient.

The search function can filtered according to whether the service is:

• locally commissioned
• nationally commissioned

After the May 2023 release, it will no longer be possible to search for locally commissioned services only or search for nationally commissioned services only.

The change being made will ensure:

• both locally and nationally commissioned services are always returned
• referrers always see all available services when referring a patient

This page details the change and it's impact on the e-RS API.

Partners will need to be aware of changes in behaviour impacting service search, creating or amending a referral shortlist and retrieval of search criteria.

The proposed changes may impact API solutions that are using our STU3 endpoints. This includes: A010 - Patient service search, A011 - Create referral, A021 - Create referral and send for triage, A031 - Change shortlist and A032 - Change shortlist and send for triage.

Before change

To use the A010 - Patient service search endpoint currently, systems must tell e-RS which service commissioning menu (such as commissioningProvisioning) they are searching against.

Values which can be sent currently:

• LOCALLY_COMMISSIONABLE - e-RS will only return services that have been commissioned by the appropriate local integrated care board (ICB)
• NATIONALLY_AVAILABLE - e-RS will only return services that have been commissioned nationally
• ALL_AVAILABLE_FOR_BOOKING - e-RS will return both locally and nationally commissioned services
• ALL_SERVICES - although this value is referenced in the specifications, it is not currently supported

After change

When the change is made, it will no longer be necessary for integrated solutions to send commissioningProvisioning when using the A010 - Patient service search STU3 endpoint.

To minimise the impact on our existing API partners, e-RS will allow:

• the commissioningProvisioning to be sent but partners should be aware that e-RS will ignore it
• the commissioningProvisioning to be omitted

In both instances, e-RS will process the endpoint request to always return both locally and nationally commissioned services. Treating it as per the ALL_AVAILABLE_FOR_BOOKING case described above.

Partner systems that present users with the option to set the commissioningProvisioning may wish to revise their functionality.

When the change is made, it will no longer be necessary for API solutions to send commissioningProvisioning when using our STU3 endpoints.

The endpoints affected include: A011 - Create referral, A021 - Create referral and send for triage, A031 - Change shortlist and A032 - Change shortlist and send for triage.

To minimise the impact on our existing API partners, e-RS will allow:

• the commissioningProvisioning to be sent but API partners should be aware that e-RS will ignore it
• the commissioningProvisioning to be omitted

In both instances, e-RS will process the endpoint request to always return both locally and nationally commissioned services. Treating it as per the ALL_AVAILABLE_FOR_BOOKING case described above.

This change should have no material impact on partner systems.

There are a number of STU3 endpoints in which e-RS will provide the latest details pertaining to a given ReferralRequest or CommunicationRequest.

The details will include the search criteria used to shortlist services, which in turn includes the commissioningProvisioning value last used.

To minimise the impact on our existing API partners, e-RS will continue to return the commissioningProvisioning in the following ways:

1. For all shortlists created after the change, the value will always be 'ALL_AVAILABLE_FOR_BOOKING'.
2. For those shortlists created before the change, e-RS will continue to return the commissioningProvisioning value originally submitted.

This change should have no material impact on partner systems.

If you need further information, please contact us at [email protected].