Integrating with the NHS Spine Directory Service (SDS) FHIR API enables your application to discover accredited system identifiers (ASIDs) and secure message handling endpoints across NHS organisations.
Get in touchWhether you're developing a new digital health product or extending an existing solution with NHS Spine Directory Service API integration, Whether you're developing a new digital health product or extending an existing solution with
6B supports digital health innovators, NHS Trusts, commissioning bodies, and integration vendors through every step of SDS API integration. We deliver secure, standards-compliant connections that use the NHS API Gateway, ensuring your application can look up system details, routing addresses, and endpoint metadata with confidence.
The SDS FHIR API provides access to registered NHS systems by querying the Spine’s directory of accredited systems. Each system registered in an organisation has a unique ASID, and many have message-handling server records with endpoint details. Your application can retrieve metadata to route messages or build dynamic addressing flows – all via FHIR R4-compatible resources like Endpoint and Organization.
The API uses secure, application-restricted access with OAuth 2.0 client credentials or API key authentication. It operates via RESTful endpoints over the NHS API platform and enforces strict audit and error handling rules. The service is available on the public internet and via HSCN, with separate sandbox, integration, UAT, and production environments provided.
At 6B, we start with discovery workshops to clarify your system integration pathways, whether it’s GP Connect, messaging, appointment routing, or middleware address resolution. We determine your required FHIR queries – such as retrieving ASIDs, finding practice endpoints, or looking up message server routes.
We then develop SDS FHIR client logic in your application, configure OAuth 2.0 authentication, and implement retries and error handling following NHS standards. We manage onboarding with the API Sandbox, integration, and UAT environments and ensure your development aligns with service-level expectations.
Testing is conducted across environments, validating live lookups, endpoint metadata, and error recovery. We support your team through API integration testing and liaise with NHS Digital to complete assurance as required for your primary service.
Once validated, we support the production rollout and ongoing support. We monitor API version updates and security releases and help you maintain issue resolution and compliance with evolving NHS policies.
By integrating with SDS FHIR, your solution gains accurate, real-time information about system identifiers and endpoints – enabling precise routing of clinical messages and reducing the cost of managing static address lists.
This improves reliability for critical services like GP Connect, messaging, and appointment workflows, and ensures messages reach the intended systems, reducing delivery errors.
For solution providers, SDS integration simplifies multi-organisation deployment. You build once, and your solution can resolve addresses for NHS systems nationwide – no manual configuration needed.
We have proven experience integrating SDS FHIR lookup flows as part of GP Connect, eRS messaging, and GP systems integration projects.
Our team builds robust, standards-based solutions with full handling for ASID lookups, endpoint metadata, routing reliability, security, and paging.
We guide you through onboarding, testing, and production rollout on the NHS API platform — ensuring your solution is compliant with authentication, error handling, and service-level policies.
Our modular architecture allows dynamic endpoint resolution across services, cutting operational overhead and enabling scalable NHS-wide deployment.
6B’s commitment extends beyond go-live: we support ongoing monitoring, service updates, compliance patches, and onboarding to other NHS APIs that depend on SDS metadata.
