Everyone registered with the NHS in England and Wales has their own NHS Number. It is the only national unique patient identifier, used to help healthcare staff and service providers match you to your health records. It is an important step towards providing you with safer patient care.
Each NHS number is a unique 10-digit number. The old style of NHS Numbers had a mixture of letters and numbers and was replaced with new style of NHS numbers in 1996.
You do not need to know your NHS Number to receive NHS care, however if you do know your NHS Number it can help the person treating you to find your medical records more quickly and share them more safely with other health care professionals.
The NHS number is becoming more important as systems such as ‘Choose and Book’ use them to identify patients accurately.
There are a number of ways you can obtain your NHS number;
- Please click on the following link: Find your NHS number – NHS (www.nhs.uk)
- Alternatively, ring in for your NHS Number. We will need to ask you a few questions to verify we are talking to you.