/nhs/services/search

POST /api/nhs/services/search

Price: 5 credits

Search NHS service organisations near a UK postcode by service type (GP, dentist, pharmacy, hospital, optician, podiatrist, sexual health, screening and many more), optionally narrowed by attributes such as accepting new patients or open now. Returns each organisation's ODS code, name, type, address, phone, distance, status flags, online registration link (GP) and profile URL, ordered nearest first.

How to use it

Find NHS organisations near a UK postcode. Pass service_type (gp, dentist, pharmacy, hospital, ...) and postcode (e.g. 'SW1A 1AA'); optionally filters (e.g. GpAcceptingNewPatients, PharmacyOpenNow). Returns id (ODS code), name, org_type_code, address, phone, distance_miles, status, registration_url and detail_url for each match. Feed id + service_type into nhs/services for the full profile.

Parameters

• access-token string required

Request body

• timeout integer — Max scrapping execution timeout (in seconds) (default: 300; min: 20; max: 1500)
• service_type string required — Type of NHS service to search for (one of: "gp", "dentist", "pharmacy", "hospital", "nhs_sight_test", "podiatrist", "sexual_health_clinic", "hiv_treatment", "breast_screening", "abdominal_aortic_aneurysm_screening", "diabetic_eye_screening", "chlamydia_screening", "sti_testing", "emergency_contraception", "free_condoms", "sexual_health_advice", "young_people_sexual_health", "rape_and_sexual_assault_referral", "drug_treatment", "drug_addiction_support", "stop_smoking", "pals", "pregnancy_testing")
• postcode string required — UK postcode to search around (examples: "SW1A 1AA", "M1 1AE"; minLength: 1)
• filters array nullable — Restrict results to organisations matching these attributes (one of: "GpAcceptingNewPatients", "GpAcceptingOutOfAreaPatients", "PharmacyOpenNow", "ConsultationRoom", "CarParking", "DisabledCarParking", "StepFreeAccess", "WheelchairAccess", "DentistAcceptingChildren", "DentistAcceptingAdults", "DentistAcceptingFreeCare")
• count integer required — Max number of results to return (min: 1)

Response

• @type string (default: "NhsServiceSearchItem")
• id string required
• name string required
• org_type_code string nullable
• address string nullable
• phone string nullable
• distance_miles number nullable
• status array (default: [])
• registration_url string nullable
• detail_url string nullable

Errors

• 422 — The request body did not validate Check the fields against this schema. A URN with the wrong prefix is the most common cause.
• 408 — The request ran past its time limit Raise `timeout` in the request body, up to the maximum this endpoint documents. Lowering `count` or turning off the `with_*` flags also helps, because less work finishes sooner.
• 412 — Postcode could not be resolved or no services found Retrying will not help: either the entity does not exist, or the input points at a different one.
• 429 — Too many requests: a rate limit or a usage window is exhausted When the response carries an X-Retry-After header, wait that many seconds and retry: the same number is in the body as `detail.retry_after`, and the limit clears once that window passes. The message in the body names the limit that was hit.
• 500 — Something broke on our side Retrying will not help. If it keeps happening, send us the X-Request-ID from the response headers.
• 529 — Rate limit reached, or the endpoint is overloaded Wait at least 30 seconds, then retry.

Response headers

• X-Error — Error message text (present only on error)
• X-Request-ID — Unique request identifier
• X-Execution-Time — Execution time in seconds
• X-Result-Count — How many records the body carries. 0 means an empty result, which is a normal answer and not by itself an error. A non-zero count can come back together with X-Error when the failure happened partway through — read this header and X-Error independently.
• X-Total-Available-Results — How many records exist for this query, when the endpoint can say. On a `dry_run` request this is the answer and the body is empty. It saturates: the endpoint's documented maximum means 'at least that many', any smaller number is exact.
• X-Warning — Present when the request body carried keys this endpoint does not document. They were ignored, so any filter you meant to apply through them did not apply. Check the spelling against this schema and retry.
• X-Retry-After — Seconds to wait before retrying. Present only on 429.