The NHS has vast swaths of IT systems from Patient Administration Systems (PAS), through to analysis systems for the identification of risk.    The organisations involved in and with the NHS need to communicate with each other in order to ensure best practice, but often with the disparate nature of the elements involved - hospitals, ambulance services, GP surgeries, social services, public health teams and private sector contractors - it is not always easy.

The UPRN, used across the NHS, can ensure that in all instances, information relating to property and specifically patients’ addresses is consistently referenced.  It provides a method wherein all departments, however disparate they may be, can all have greater confidence in the accuracy of their communications.

How the NHS can access and use the UPRN

There are efficiencies to be gained from having a single, central deployment of address data, updated by one team and then accessed by all. This can work for a local authority or even a police force, but the sheer size of the NHS makes this a somewhat impractical solution.

Under the terms of the PSMA (Public Sector Mapping Agreement) the NHS will be entitled to use the AddressBase Products free of charge, which means that even if there are multiple deployments, the cost for the data will remain unchanged.

By 'plugging in' the AddressBase Products into NHS systems through the use of Symphony SinglePoint, all will be able to access and use the UPRN as well as have the most accurate and up to date address data ever available.