NHS Booking and Referral Standard

This guidance is under active development by NHS Digital and content may be added or updated on a regular basis.

Welcome to the BaRs (Booking and Referral standard)

This Booking and Referral Standard (BaRS) is an interoperability standard that enables booking and referral information to be shared efficiently and securely between healthcare IT systems and across care settings. It replaces the NHS Booking Standard which has been successfully deployed in many hospital trusts and healthcare IT systems and will provide enhanced capability using FHIR.

We're developing the necessary national infrastructure and components that underpin delivery of BaRS. Initially, it will be implemented within three care journeys:

  • between NHS 111/clinical assessment services (CAS) and emergency departments (or A&E)
  • between 999 and CAS for referral
  • between 999 and CAS for ambulance validation

We'll use the experience gained from these two initial implementations to improve BaRS ahead of making it available to other care settings over the next few years.

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