API platform

The NHS England API platform is the centralised hub for building, hosting, and securely accessing APIs to integrate with all digital services within the NHS ecosystem.

The API platform is specifically designed to support the development and integration of point-of-care and patient-facing Apps, empowering users to access patient information and healthcare services safely and efficiently.

The platform hosts APIs that serve the NHS and runs on the robust and scalable Apigee infrastructure. It features the innovative Proxygen API, which automates API hosting and integration, enabling API developers to create and deploy API proxies.

With robust tools, comprehensive tutorials, and streamlined self-service capabilities, the platform simplifies the API development process while ensuring compliance with NHS information governance standards and policies. Acting as a secure gateway to NHS systems, it facilitates seamless integration and reliable performance for developers.

For API developer teams, the platform provides a high-quality API development ecosystem that drives innovation, reduces development costs, and accelerates time-to-market. It also aligns with NHS England’s Data Saves Lives and Open API policies to deliver secure, consistent and high-quality API experiences for developers, healthcare professionals and patients alike.

The API platform is part of our mission to make integration easier, and provides benefits for both API consumers and API producers.

For API consumers, the API platform provides: 

• a consistent, modern experience using open standards such as REST, FHIR and OAuth 2.0 

• self-service and immediate access to test environments

• quicker and easier access to production using our digital onboarding service 

• access from the internet, as well as HSCN 

• documentation that is clear, consistent and comprehensive, using OAS for API specifications

• a single point of contact for help and support

For API producers, the API platform provides: 

• quicker and more predictable delivery using our easy-to-follow API delivery process 

• get started quickly using our one-click API platform set-up tool

• full customisation, with plug-and-play modules for authorisation, rate limiting, logging, monitoring and alerting 

• a full CI/CD pipeline, including multiple path-to-live environments 

• automatic publishing of API documentation and use Open API Specifications (OAS) to define your proxies

• comprehensive self-service technical and non-technical guidance in our API producer zone (account required)

• dedicated technical and non-technical support

• a proxy generating API (Proxygen) that allows producers to build proxies within hours rather than days
• inbuilt option to secure your API with the Care Identity Service (CIS) or NHS login
• deployment is fully controlled by your team, and can be done any time
• APIs are automatically monitored by ITOC and CSOC teams
• alerts for expiring certificates

By making integration easier, we provide a number of benefits to the wider NHS:

• API producers and consumers can get useful integrated software deployed quicker and cheaper, meaning there's more time to add and improve features
• the lower barrier to entry allows more software providers into the marketplace, creating an environment for digital innovation to thrive whilst pushing down software costs to the NHS
• healthcare workers and patients have a wider variety of well-integrated software to choose from, meaning they are more likely to have the information they need, when and where they need it
• zero down time deployments, and no service outages for maintenance

The API platform is for API consumers and API producers, primarily for use by the NHS in England. 

You can only use the API platform for APIs or services that support the delivery of health and care for the NHS in England, although there are some exceptions to this rule. We operate a 'platform' model where you build and run your own API, using our tools with our help and support.

The NHS England API platform provides a consistent, secure, and scalable way for teams to publish APIs for use across health and care.

API producers develop and maintain their API specifications and configurations within their own repositories, following NHS England API standards such as OpenAPI Specification (OAS) and FHIR. Once ready, teams can use the Proxygen API to package and deploy their API.

This process automatically generates a secure proxy on the platform that connects the producer’s backend service to consumers in a consistent, standards-driven way.

The platform provides a set of built-in capabilities, so producers don’t need to build these themselves:

Previously, the platform offered fully managed hosting, but this has now been discontinued. Instead, the platform operates on a “bring your own backend” model: producers remain responsible for building and running their own API services, while the API platform provides the secure, national front door for access, identity, and traffic management.

For more detailed guidance on what producers need to do - including authoring OAS specifications, applying NHS API standards, and working with Proxygen - see the Building healthcare APIs page.

Our bespoke code, including the code for all our API proxies, is mostly coded in the open and hosted in our GitHub repositories.

API consumers

To get started as an API consumer, see the developer and integration hub.

API producers

To get started as an API producer, see Building healthcare APIs.

The API platform is live and is a platinum service, meaning:

• it is available and supported 24 x 7 x 365
• it has a guaranteed availability of 99.9%, although actual availability is higher - for example in 2021 it was 99.995%

The API platform was launched in 2020, as part of our mission to make integration easier and exited beta in March 2022.

The first API we built on the platform was the Personal Demographics Service FHIR API. This is our 'exemplar' API – a demonstration of what good looks like. 

Since then, all new NHS England APIs have been built on the platform, and we have been working to migrate our existing APIs to the platform. This is likely to take some time.

You can check on our progress by viewing our API and integration catalogue, filtered on API platform APIs.

For details of case studies, see Case studies.