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Primary Care Registration Management

Primary Care Registration Management (PCRM) is the NHS back-end service that manages the formal GP-registration process. It coordinates registration between the patient's new GP system, previous GP system, and Personal Demographics Service (PDS), which holds the patient's address and registered GP.

PCRM is not an NHS App feature and has no patient-facing interface. In this wiki it is a registration-state control: a patient-facing registration request may lead to PCRM changing the registered-GP state that NHS App and other GP-linked services subsequently rely on.

Service Role

Official NHS England Digital sources establish that PCRM:

  • manages the formal process for changing the registered GP in Personal Demographics Service (PDS);
  • supports new registration and previous-practice deduction messages;
  • allows GP systems to update a patient's address in PDS;
  • works alongside Register with a GP surgery and GP2GP rather than replacing either service;
  • replaced the GP-registration elements of National Health Application and Infrastructure Services (NHAIS) in 2024; and
  • is live, mandatory for GP systems in England, and used across England, Wales, the Isle of Man, and Defence Medical Services (DMS).

The DMS scope is directly relevant to this wiki. It proves that Defence registrations are within the stated PCRM service geography. It does not prove how a particular DPHC Firmbase or DPHC Overseas [DPHC(O)] practice, patient cohort, or NHS App feature is configured.

Logical Registration Route

This is a logical component relationship, not a confirmed Defence Primary Healthcare (DPHC) implementation trace.

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flowchart TB
  Request["Patient registration<br/>online or at practice"] --> NewGP["New GP system"]
  NewGP --> GPLinks["NHAIS GP Links<br/>via MESH"]
  GPLinks --> PCRM["PCRM"]
  PCRM --> PDS["PDS<br/>registered GP / address"]
  PCRM --> OldGP["Previous GP system<br/>deduction"]
  OldGP -. "record transfer via GP2GP" .-> NewGP

Interface Boundary

Layer Role Evidence boundary
Patient-facing registration Register with a GP surgery or a practice-managed application captures the request. A submitted application is not a completed registration. Practice acceptance and catchment rules still apply.
Registration exchange NHAIS GP Links sends asynchronous messages through Message Exchange for Social Care and Health (MESH) to PCRM. The native payload is EDIFACT; NHS England Digital also documents a deployable FHIR-compliant RESTful adaptor. The integration is application-restricted, requires a valid legal basis, software onboarding, and caller-side authorisation controls.
Registration state PCRM updates the registered GP and supported demographic data in PDS and sends the previous practice a deduction notification. PDS state must be checked after the process; service scope does not prove the expected state for a named DPHC cohort.
Clinical-record transfer GP2GP transfers the electronic GP record between eligible old and new practices. PCRM registration and GP2GP record transfer are related but separate processes. A registration-state change does not prove a complete record transfer.
Exceptions Unresolved PCRM cases are handled through the relevant primary-care support process using the Demographic Spine Application. Manual exceptions, delay, reconciliation, and continuity controls need operational evidence.

The current NHAIS GP Links integration uses MESH workflow messages to register a patient, notify the previous practice of deduction, and update PDS demographic information.

NHS App Relevance

The NHS App can display the current GP surgery and connect a user to Register with a GP surgery. PCRM sits behind the formal registration process; it is not called or operated directly by the NHS App user.

For NHS App analysis, keep these states separate:

  1. the user submits or starts a registration application;
  2. the new practice accepts or rejects it;
  3. PCRM changes the formal registered-GP state in PDS;
  4. GP2GP transfers and the new practice integrates the clinical record;
  5. NHS App account, GP-linked feature, proxy, and linked-profile behaviour is retested.

Use Registration State Model for these transitions and Guidance Decision Model for the resulting feature status.

DPHC Evidence Boundary

Current official evidence confirms the PCRM service role and explicitly includes DMS in its stated coverage. It does not yet establish:

  • which DPHC Firmbase or DPHC(O) organisation and practice identifiers PCRM uses;
  • the registered-GP state held in PDS for each DPHC cohort;
  • the GP-system and NHAIS GP Links configuration used by each DPHC practice;
  • how transitions into, out of, or between DPHC care affect GP2GP and other record-transfer processes;
  • whether NHS App mobile access, proxy relationships, linked profiles, or GP-linked features continue or restore after the registration change; or
  • which service owner is accountable for exceptions, reconciliation, and patient safety-netting.

Do not use PCRM's DMS coverage as proof of ordinary NHS GP-practice equivalence or NHS App feature availability. It narrows the registration-infrastructure gap while leaving the patient, practice, supplier, transition, and feature outcomes to be evidenced.

Current Source Confidence

High for the current PCRM role, DMS geographical scope, PDS relationship, NHAIS GP Links route, and separation from GP2GP. Not evidenced for named DPHC practice configuration, cohort-specific registration state, record-transfer outcome, or NHS App feature behaviour.