NHS Booking and Referral Standard
An interoperability standard between patient record systems that enables booking and referral information to be sent between NHS healthcare system providers quickly, safely and in a format that is useful to clinicians.
About this standard
- Owner
- NHS England
- Status
- Active
Show definitions of statuses
Active standards are stable, maintained and have been assured or endorsed for use by qualified bodies.
Standards in development are APIs or API standards in alpha or beta, meaning they are available for use but are still in progress and may change.
Deprecated standards are older versions of a standard which are being phased out.
Retired standards are not being maintained and should not be used.
- Standard type
- Data definitions and terminologies
- Technical standards and specifications
Show definitions of standard types
Record standards define what information to collect and how to format it, for example when registering a new patient.
Data definitions and terminologies define the format of individual data items so they can be consistently represented, for example dates or medication names. Reference sets and controlled lists are also included.
Technical standards and specifications specify how to make information available technically including how the data is structured and transported.
Information codes of practice are legal or best practice guidelines on how information should be handled.
- Contact details
- standards.assurance@nhs.net
Link to standard
- Documentation
- View documentation for this standardopens in a new tab
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Topics and care settings
- Topic
- Appointment / scheduling
- Referrals
- Care setting
- Hospital
- Urgent and Emergency Care
Dependencies and related standards
- Dependencies
- Related standards
Assurance and endorsements
- Reference code for standards issued as requirements in England
- DAPB4060
- Quality assurance
This standard has been approved by the Data Alliance Partnership Board (DAPB).
- Endorsements
- The BaRS has been endorsed by the NHS England Architectural Board.
- The Professional Record and Standards Body (PRSB) has partnered the early development of the BaRS, in particular the application of BaRS from any 111 sending system.
Page last updated: 20 November 2023