Introduction

This Help Centre covers some features of NHS Digital (formerly HSCIC, CfH and NPfIT) that affect your use of the Vision system.

Vision systems connect directly to the National Services for the following supported services:

• Single Sign On (SSO) Secure sign on to the national services and Vision using a smart card and PIN - this allows you to use certain applications such as the NHS e-Referral Service, GP2GP, EPS and the NCRS. See Single Sign On (England).
• Selecting a patient's record from PDS and updating the record if necessary. This involves connecting to the PDS (Patient Demographics Service) to validate locally cached demographic details and ensure that PDS details are correct prior to the referral process or other national services. See Personal Demographics Service (England).
• The e-Referral Service - A connection is made to the e-Referral Service web services in order to obtain a unique booking referral number (UBRN) to be used in future transactions, and to make a full or partial hospital outpatient appointment. An electronic referral is transmitted to the e-Referral Service containing the UBRN and a summary of patient clinical data pertinent to the referral. See e-Referral Service (England).
• Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) – Release 1,2 and 3 of EPS can be implemented in Vision. As prescriptions (tokens) are printed and given to the patient, at the same a message is sent to the ETP part of the spine. When the pharmacist scans the prescription (token), the details are retrieved from the Spine. See Electronic Prescription Service (England).
• GP2GP - When a patient registers with a new practice, a message is sent requesting the general practice patient record from the old practice, who then send the patient record electronically to the new practice. The messages and patient record are handled in Mail Manager (in XML format) from where the record can then be filed into Consultation Manager. Active medication then needs to be created and allergies added. Some checking of the patient record is advisable but otherwise almost all data entries are entered automatically. See GP2GP (England).
• Role Based Access Control (RBAC) has been in place for some time without directly affecting your access to specific functions in Vision. However, RBAC becomes a compulsory part of Vision once EPS 2 is enabled at your practice. This means that when you login to Vision with your Smartcard your access to Vision modules and functions is dictated by the roles and functions that are stored on your Smartcard. See RBAC Guidance for Sponsors and RAs (England).
• Summary Care Record (SCR) - The National Summary stores an individual's personal details, such as their address and date of birth, along with their health and care history on the Spine. It includes information such as whether a patient is diabetic or has a drug allergy, as well as details of the treatment and care they have received to build up a comprehensive patient history. See Summary Care Record (England).

You are referred to the NHS Digital website https://digital.nhs.uk/article/196/Systems-and-services for further details.