The National Health Service Central Register (NHSCR) is a

Scottish Government The Scottish Government (, ) is the executive arm of the devolved government of Scotland. It was formed in 1999 as the Scottish Executive following the 1997 referendum on Scottish devolution, and is headquartered at St Andrew's House in ...

database accessible to

public bodies A statutory corporation is a government entity created as a statutory body by statute. Their precise nature varies by jurisdiction, but they are corporations owned by a government or controlled by national or sub-national government to the (in ...

approved by the

Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament ( ; ) is the Devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. It is located in the Holyrood, Edinburgh, Holyrood area of Edinburgh, and is frequently referred to by the metonym 'Holyrood'. ...

. The register was established in the early 1950s to facilitate the transfer of patients between health board areas or across borders within the

countries of the United Kingdom Since 1922, the United Kingdom has been made up of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales (which collectively make up Great Britain) and Northern Ireland (#Terminology, variously described as a country, province, jurisdiction or region). The ...

. However, its role has expanded over the decades and it now also provides Scottish local authorities with a Unique Citizen Reference Number or UCRN used to identify people on their own databases. In 2006, the

and the

National Records of Scotland National Records of Scotland () is a non-ministerial department of the Scottish Government. It is responsible for civil registration, the census in Scotland, demography and statistics, family history, as well as the national archives and hist ...

made a major expansion of the applications of the NHSCR by changing regulations with section 57 of the Local Electoral Administration and Registration Services (Scotland) Act 2006. In 2015, the Scottish Government proposed expanding access to the NHSCR to more than 100 additional public bodies. The associated consultation received 302 responses. The proposed expansion was criticised by the Open Rights Group, who believed it may breach data protection rules and human rights and resembles a national identity system. In February 2017, the Scottish Government informed the

that it did not intend to proceed with the proposals.

Community Health Index

The Community Health Index is a register of all patients in

NHS Scotland NHS Scotland, sometimes styled NHSScotland, is the publicly–funded healthcare system in Scotland and one of the four systems that make up the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. It operates 14 territorial NHS boards across Scotland ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

's publicly funded healthcare system. The register exists to ensure that patients can be correctly identified, and that all information pertaining to a patient's

health Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, p ...

is available to providers of care. Patients are identified using a ten-digit number known as the CHI Number, pronounced . This number is normally formed using the patient's date of birth (as DDMMYY), followed by four digits: two digits randomly generated, the third digit identifying

gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...

(odd for men, even for women) and a

check digit A check digit is a form of redundancy check used for Error detection and correction, error detection on identification numbers, such as bank account numbers, which are used in an application where they will at least sometimes be input manually. It ...

(Modulus-11). As of March 2010, uptake of this number (based on radiology requests) varied across Scotland from 96.5% to 99.9% depending on the local NHS Board.

Pharmacy

The CHI number is included in electronic medical referencing systems, such as AMS (Acute Medicine Service), CMS (Chronic Medicine Service) and MAS ( Minor Ailment Scheme). All of these connect to Scotland's ''ePharmacy'' which contains details of all medical patients for Scotland.The Scottish Government, (January 2008
ePharmacy Toolkit for Community Pharmacists
NHS Scotland, , Retrieved 10 March 2015

References

{{Reflist

External links

National Health Service Central Register
at the National Records of Scotland NHS Scotland 1950s establishments in Scotland Databases in Scotland Government databases in the United Kingdom Identity management systems Medical databases in the United Kingdom National identification numbers Politics and technology Demographics of Scotland Authentication methods

Community Health Index

Pharmacy

See also

References

External links