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Personal Demographics Service

Personal Demographics Service (PDS) is the national electronic database of NHS patient demographic details. The NHS service page identifies patient demographic data including NHS number and registered GP practice as part of the PDS context.

Role in NHS App Architecture

PDS supplies patient identity and registered-GP context for NHS services. In this wiki it is a core dependency for NHS App account-linked and GP-linked route analysis. Primary Care Registration Management (PCRM) manages the formal registration process that changes the registered-GP state held in PDS.

Route Placement

PDS is used wherever a service needs to identify the patient, NHS number, registered GP context, or contact / restricted-status context. It appears in GP Connect Patient Facing API routes, NHS Notify contact checks, and registered-GP service discovery patterns.

DPHC Relevance

For Defence Primary Healthcare (DPHC), the practical question is what PDS records for the patient's registered GP context:

This feeds Registration State Model and Guidance Decision Model.

Patient-Facing Medical Centre Display

Project-owner direction reports that the NHS number and registered GP practice display for a DPHC-registered patient uses the civilianised Medical Centre name and address. This is the current IRTB(P) service-description baseline. A representative patient screenshot, PDS extract or cohort test is still required before treating the display as consistent across the estate.

The displayed label does not by itself prove mobile NHS App access, ordinary NHS GP-practice equivalence, GP-linked feature enablement or a usable supplier endpoint.

Dependencies

Dependency Why it matters
NHS number Required for identity matching and many NHS route lookups.
Registered GP context Determines GP-linked route assumptions.
Primary Care Registration Management (PCRM) registration process Changes the formal registered-GP state in PDS and coordinates new / previous GP-system registration messages.
Organisation Data Service (ODS) organisation identity Connects patient registration to provider / endpoint handling.
Contact and restricted-status handling Relevant to NHS Notify and fallback-channel behaviour.

What This Does Not Prove

PDS component evidence does not prove that DPHC registrations are treated like ordinary NHS GP registrations, that a DPHC organisation has a usable GP-system endpoint, or that an NHS App feature is enabled.

Evidence Needed

  • PDS registered-GP state for DPHC Firmbase patients.
  • PDS registered-GP state for DPHC(O) / Defence Global Practice patients.
  • Before/after PDS state when patients move into or out of DPHC registration.
  • Whether minor, dependant, proxy, and linked-profile routes rely on the same PDS state.

Current Source Confidence

High for PDS component role. Not evidenced for DPHC registration equivalence or NHS App feature availability.