Registration Links

Registration Links (known as Partners in Scotland) allows Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) of Registration data between GP practices and active trading partners (TPs - Health Authorities [HA] and Health Boards) using DTS messaging (England and Wales), Outlook (Ireland) and Elinks (Scotland).

Before Registration Links is operational, reconciliation of the patient databases at the practice and the TP is carried out by the practice downloading their data to the TP. They run list matching software, and upload any discrepancies to the practice. The practice can accept or reject these changes.

When a link is on, the Registration Links box is checked in System.

Once the link has been established between an active TP and a practice, then any addition or amendment to the Registration record for a permanently registered patient generates a transaction.

Using GPC, transactions are then transmitted daily to the TP and at the same time, any incoming transactions from the TP are picked up by the practice. These may also include Deductions (patients removed) or Approvals (of new patients), and once accepted by the practice, automatically updates the patient's Registration record.

A summary Daily Status screen reminds the practice when the quarter ends and whether there are any outstanding transactions, or medical records due for sending to the TP for deducted patients. Full audit trails of all data exchanged between the TPs and the practices are possible.

When the TP sends a Close Quarter Notification transaction, indicating that the previous quarter is closed, the practice is required to archive the quarter's completed transactions to disk, and produce a Quarterly Certificate of all registration transactions and a Quarterly Capitation Report, one copy of which is sent to the TP. For Scotland, the quarter is closed automatically on a set date.