Data Description
Codes for Pharmacy Headquarters organisations (dispensary owners) in England. Each Pharmacy Headquarters can be linked to many Pharmacies/Dispensaries.
How Data is Maintained
The data for Pharmacy/Dispensaries are supplied by the NHS Business Services Authority (BSA) and are processed by ODS for onward publication. In order that the data is structured to fit with other organisation data that the ODS publish, and to meet Spine requirements, ODS create and maintain parent Pharmacy HQ codes and associate each pharmacy/dispensary to an HQ.
The NHS BSA relies on their contacts within Sub ICB Locations to inform them of updates and additions to Dispensaries within their area. This updating is carried out to the NHS BSA’s systems on an ongoing basis, with the BSA supplying updated files to ODS weekly. ODS load the pharmacy/dispensary data from the BSA to a bespoke database, which is used to identify new dispensaries and either assign them to an existing HQ, or create new HQ codes when required. At present, only the Pharmacy HQ name is provided to ODS by the BSA to facilitate this matching/code creation. From this, ODS use the Pharmaceutical Council website to obtain the HQ address. We then link the pharmacy to the HQ via an ‘is operated by’ relationship (with start/end dates).
ODS Support Team accept updates to Pharmacy HQ codes from the organisations in question, but these are validated against information recorded on the Pharmaceutical Council website (if available, it only gives the ‘owner’ name).
Change of Ownership
There are 2 ways ODS can be informed of a change of ownership for a pharmacy – either by the BSA changing the HQ name in the weekly file, or by the pharmacy/pharmacy group contacting us via Exeter Helpdesk (all requests verified against Pharmaceutical Council website).
If we are informed of a change of ownership, we will end date the current ‘is operated by relationship’ and add a new one. The relationship dates do not relate to the actual contract dates – the end/start dates reflect the date the changes were processed in our data.
Not all pharmacy reparent changes will be due to change of ownership, some will be to correct errors (as we only receive the HQ name in raw data). The published record does not contain any attributes that would state reason for change.
ODS have also seen cases where the BSA will issue a new pharmacy code, rather than reparenting existing for a change of ownership.
Note that ODS Data Search and Export will only display the current HQ, to obtain info re parent HQ history query the ORD API or ODS Terminology FHIR API (R4).
Data Quality Assessment
For further information re the: ODS Data Quality Assessment Framework
| Data Quality Dimension | |||||||||||
| Last updated: |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ODS mastered or 3rd party data | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| OVERALL | Frequency of Update | Data Collection Method | Fit for Purpose | Coverage / Completeness | Reliability / Accuracy | Data Agreement | 3rd Party Escalation Routes | System Application / Downstream System Feedback | Future Refinement / Improvement Plan | ||
| Pharmacy Headquarters | GREEN | Amber | Red | Green | Green | Amber | ODS | n/a | n/a | Green | Amber |
| Weekly | Email (csv files) Ad hoc request from Pharmacy | ODS create Pharmacy HQ codes as required. | Created as required - unclear if gaps (no reports of this from downstream systems so assume coverage is good). | In order to create codes for Pharmacy HQs, ODS only receive the name of the HQ from the BSA when pharmacy/dispensary codes are created. There is no definitive source of Pharmacy HQ data for ODS to verify against, making accuracy and reliability challenging. | n/a | n/a | Low volume of customer queries/issues | We have attempted to obtain data from the Pharmaceutical Council but the attributes we require are not held/available from them | |||
Key Information - Roles, Code Formats and Data Source
| Key Information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Geographic coverage |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Primary Role ID | RO181 | Primary Role Name | PHARMACY HEADQUARTERS | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Non Primary Role ID | RO268 | Non Primary Role Name | MEDICINE SUPPLIER | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Raw Data Source | NHS Business Services Authority - Prescription Service | Update Frequency | Weekly | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Code Format |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Permitted Relationships
Permitted Relationships - 'Pharmacy Headquarters' can be linked to (upward): | ||||
Source Primary Role ID | Relationship Type Id | Relationship Type Name | Target Primary Role ID | Target Primary Role Name |
| RO181 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Permitted Relationships - organisation types that are linked to a 'Pharmacy Headquarters' (downward/dependent): | |||||
| Source Primary Role ID | Source Primary Role Name | Relationship Type Id | Relationship Type Name | Target Primary Role ID | Target Primary Role Name |
| RO182 | PHARMACY | RE6 | IS OPERATED BY | RO181 | PHARMACY HEADQUARTER |
Legacy .csv File Mapping
Click here for an explanation of the baseline data differences between legacy csv files and ODS Data Search and Export and the ODS APIs.
epharmacyhq.csv
Primary Role ID = RO181
Col | Data Item | Report Alias (legacy csv) | Notes |
1 | [OrganisationCode] | Organisation Code | |
2 | [OrgName] | Name | |
3 | NULL | Column 3 | |
4 | NULL | Column 4 | |
5 | [Address1] | Address Line 1 | |
6 | [Address2] | Address Line 2 | |
7 | [Address3] | Address Line 3 | |
8 | [Town] | Address Line 4 | |
9 | [County] | Address Line 5 | Change from legacy csv: As this is a legacy field, not populated for new addresses since 2018, this field within the ODS Data Search & Export tool (including pre defined reports) will not be populated. Note that the value (where populated) is available via the FHIR Organization Resource in the address.district property. |
10 | [Postcode] | Postcode | |
11 | [LegalStartDate] | Open Date | |
12 | [LegalEndDate] | Close Date | |
13 | NULL | Column 13 | |
14 | NULL | Column 14 | |
15 | NULL | Column 15 | |
16 | NULL | Column 16 | |
17 | NULL | Column 17 | |
18 | [TelephoneNumber] | Contact Telephone Number | |
19 | NULL | Column 19 | |
20 | NULL | Column 20 | |
21 | NULL | Column 21 | |
22 | ‘1’ | Amended Record Indicator | Set to 1 for Report |
23 | NULL | Column 23 | |
24 | NULL | Column 24 | |
25 | NULL | Column 25 | |
26 | NULL | Column 26 | |
27 | NULL | Column 27 |
Attachments:
Pharmacy HQ Data Process Flow (application/vnd.jgraph.mxfile)
Pharmacy HQ Data Process Flow.png (image/png)
