NHS Transfer of Care API Integration

Our Transfer of Care integration services are designed to reduce delays, eliminate communication gaps, and improve continuity of care as patients move between healthcare environments.

Understanding Transfer of Care APIs

Transfer of Care APIs support structured document exchange between healthcare services – most commonly, between hospitals and GP practices. These APIs enable the seamless transmission of discharge summaries, clinic letters, and other key communications when a patient’s care transitions from one setting to another.

Whether a transfer is temporary or permanent, it’s vital that clinicians at both ends have immediate access to the most accurate and complete information about the patient. NHS England has standardised the format, transport method, and terminology used in these transfers to improve clinical safety and reduce manual workload.

Transfer of Care APIs form part of NHS England’s wider strategy to ensure data moves with the patient and to support better integrated care delivery across the healthcare system.

Our Transfer of Care API Integration Process

At 6B, we work closely with your team to integrate Transfer of Care APIs into your application or system. We start by understanding your use case – whether it’s generating discharge documents, consuming clinic letters, or sending messages between care settings – and assess what needs to be built, adapted, or aligned to existing NHS specifications.

Our process is fully aligned with NHS England’s architecture, which is based on five layers:

Clinical layer – NHS-endorsed professional standards define the structure and content of discharge summaries and outpatient letters. These specifications cover inpatient, emergency, mental health, and outpatient correspondence and ensure consistency across care settings.

Terminology layer – Transfer of Care messages use SNOMED CT to encode clinical terms and ensure semantic interoperability. We support your team in preparing coded content and mapping free text fields where needed, in line with contractual requirements.

Technology layer – All Transfer of Care messages are structured using the HL7 FHIR standard. 6B’s integration approach leverages our FHIR expertise to ensure your solution adheres to the correct profiles and can scale reliably with future interoperability initiatives.

Transport layer – Document delivery is facilitated through the NHS Message Exchange for Social Care and Health (MESH) service. We configure, test, and support your MESH integration to ensure secure, encrypted transmission over the Spine network.

Message layer – Message routing and acknowledgements are managed using ITK3. We implement automated application-level acknowledgements to reduce admin for GP practices and support notification workflows for sender systems.

We guide you through every stage of integration – from sandbox development and NHS test environments to SCAL assurance, live rollout, and post-go-live support.

Benefits of Transfer of Care API Integration

Integrating Transfer of Care APIs brings significant value to both clinicians and patients. By ensuring timely and structured document exchange, clinicians have access to the full picture at the point of care. This reduces errors, supports safer clinical decisions, and helps avoid unnecessary re-admissions.

With standardised formats and automated acknowledgements, staff spend less time on manual data entry or chasing communications, freeing up time for patient-facing care. Interoperability also increases accountability – anomalies in documentation are easier to detect and resolve when standardised formats and audit trails are in place.

For patients, integration ensures their journey across the healthcare system is smoother and safer. Up-to-date clinical records follow them from A&E to GP and beyond, supporting faster diagnosis, more appropriate treatment, and better outcomes overall.

Supported Document Types

Transfer of Care API integration supports the exchange of several key document types:

• Inpatient and Day Case Discharge Summary – typically sent from an acute hospital to a patient’s GP.
• Emergency Care Discharge Summary – generated in A&E and sent to the patient’s primary care provider.
• Mental Health Discharge Summary – shared with GPs after a patient is discharged from mental health services.
• Outpatient Clinic Letter – documents clinical consultations and is sent from hospital specialists to GPs post-appointment.