HTTP Request

Retrieval of documents/records is achieved through an HTTP GET request. See the Retrieval Read Interaction page for details of the requirements for creating and sending an HTTP GET request for retrieval.

Requests via the SSP

Where a document/record is to be retrieved via the SSP, the Consumer MUST percent encode the content.attachment.url property, taken from an NRL pointer, and prefix it with the SSP server URL. For more details, see the Retrieval Read interaction page.

Provider ASID

Consumers MUST include the provider ASID in the SSP-To HTTP Header when performing a retrieval request via the SSP.

The provider ASID can be obtained through performing a Spine Directory Services (SDS) lookup. This can be done using the record author ODS code, which is included in the pointer metadata, and the interaction ID urn:nhs:names:services:nrl:DocumentReference.content.

A worked example of the endpoint look-up process can be found in the Spine Core specification.

If multiple ASIDs are found for the ODS code and interaction ID, the associated FQDN can be matched to the record URL FQDN to obtain the correct ASID.

Handling Multiple Formats

Where a Pointer contains reference to multiple formats for a single record, Consuming systems can decide which is the most appropriate format to display within their system.

For example, a record may be available as a PDF document but also as a FHIR resource. In this situation, Consumers may find it preferable to display the FHIR resource if the Consuming system can understand and process this format.