NDP Authentication Service

About this service

The Authentication Service helps:

verify the identity of NHS Scotland staff
work out what level of access NHS Scotland staff have to patient information and other services
verify the identity of members of the public

The Authentication Service allows integration with other NDP services.

Who the Authentication Service is for

The Authentication Service allows development teams to:

integrate their application with other NDP services
authenticate and authorise NHS Scotland staff within applications that connect to other NDP services
authenticate and authorise members of the public within applications that connect to other NDP services

How the Authentication Service works

The Authentication Service uses widely available tools, libraries and knowledge to speed up integration. This lowers the risk of integration errors and gives easy access to other NDP services.

The NHS Scotland identity provider supports the Authentication Service, so an application can:

link any authorisation request to a specific person, such as a healthcare worker or patient
request access to specific attributes, so NHS Scotland staff only receive the necessary information about a patient
support multiple delegated identity providers with one integration

Benefits of this service

The Authentication Service:

gives access to user’s identity securely
helps develop applications that need identity verification
supports multiple delegated identity providers with a single integration

Examples of use

The NDP Authentication service can be used to:

develop an application that gives authenticated healthcare workers access to patient demographic information
create an application to present a member of the public with their health data

If you are using another NDP service, such as the Demographics Service, you can use the Authentication Service as part of this.

Status, service level and current usage

The Authentication Service is currently In Production.

All our APIs have specific standards that determine their availability and the speed at which we address any problem.

For more details, visit:

For more information about the Authentication Service

For more detailed technical information about the NDP Authentication service, visit the documentation for developers.

Get started with this service

To start working with this service get in touch and tell us more about your project and organisation.