Personal Demographic Service (PDS)

What is the Personal Demographic Service? 

The Personal Demographics Service (PDS) is the national master database of all NHS patients in England, Wales and the Isle of Man. It holds both patients’ current and historic demographic details, such as: 

• NHS Number
• Name
• Address
• Gender
• Date of Birth
• Registered GP Practice 

The PDS forms part of the NHS SPINE.

How is PDS Populated and Updated? 

Patients born in England, Wales and Isle of Man are allocated an NHS number at birth which creates a record in PDS.  

For people arriving from outside these areas they are allocated NHS numbers either upon their first registration with a GP practice in England, or by paying the Immigration Health Surcharge as a migrant / visitor.  

PDS is updated when patients interact with healthcare and provide updated information such as names and addresses. Healthcare professionals updating local systems link directly into PDS ensuring the latest information for patients is held nationally. 

PCSE play an important role in validating updates applied by GP practices on clinical systems to ensure data quality is maintained on PDS.  

What is the information on PDS used for? 

• Medical Record Movements - Updating the registered GP Practice of a patient triggers the movement of electronic records (GP2GP) and physical medical records, provided a GP links registration is submitted and processed.
• Global Sum Payments - Data held against patients records in PDS is used as the source to calculate Global Sum at the end of each quarter.
• National Health Screening - Programs such as cancer screening use patients’ information to determine eligibility and invite patients.
• Communicating with patients - Data can be used to communicate with patients in a number of ways for various reasons. 

Additional Information 

The National Back Office (NBO), part of NHS England are responsible for data quality on PDS. PCSE will liaise with the NBO on behalf of practices to correct data quality issues identified by PCSE and reported by GP Practices in England.  

For further information, visit the Personal Demographic Services website.

Support

Take a look at our Personal Demographic Service FAQ here.