Demographics Service

About the Demographics Service

Through the Demographics Service, health and care services can access patients’ demographics information from the National CHI database. This ensures health records belong to the right person.

With this tool, health and care workers can search for a patient’s:

• CHI number
• name, date of birth, postcode and other non-clinical information when they include the patient’s CHI number in their search

Who the Demographics Service is for

Developers can use this service to integrate their software applications to access patients’ demographics. The tool also allows users to retrieve information from the National CHI database within applications that connect to other NDP services.

What information is available

The Demographics Service contains clinical and non-clinical information about people:

• born in Scotland
• not born in Scotland but registered for NHS care in Scotland

Examples of use

The Demographics Service allows health and care professionals to:

• view patients' key health data like observations, interventions, injuries, blood products and prescriptions
• get patients’ CHI number by using their demographics details
• generate PDFs of patients’ record for prescriptions and other clinical uses if the service is integrated to other tools like Docman
• get patients’ details in a HL7 FHIR format, a recognised standard format by health and care staff

Status, service level and current usage

The Demographics Service is currently In Production but only for internal use.

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

For more details, visit:

• NDP service levels
• API statuses

How to access the Demographics Service

If you’re part of NHS Scotland

To start your onboarding, you must complete:

• our Contact Us form
• the Technical Triage Form

If you’re not part of NHS Scotland

To get the necessary approval to access CHI data, you need permission from the CHI Management Board (CHIMB). To get this, apply using the Health and Social Care Public Benefit and Privacy Panel (HSC-PBPP) application form.

The Demographics Service team cannot influence the board’s decision on processes.