Overview
The Personal Demographics Service (PDS) is the national master database of all NHS patients in England, Wales and the Isle of Man - holding basic patient details such as name, address, date of birth, contact details, registered GP, nominated pharmacy and NHS number.
Patchs gets information from the PDS to enable to you to communicate with any patient on your practice list (not just those with Patchs accounts).
Personal Demographics Service (PDS) settings
The Personal Demographics Service (PDS) settings can be found on your practice's feature settings page.
Enable adding of patients from PDS
This setting allows 'non-digital' patients (i.e. patients without a Patchs account) to be added to Patchs using their details from PDS. You can then communicate with them via SMS, email, or video call just like a patient with a Patchs account.
Enable updating of patients from PDS
This setting allows non-digital patients' demographic details to to be automatically updated using details from PDS. This includes highlighting where a patient has been marked as deceased on the PDS.
Comparing of patient's contact details via PDS (set at a Super User level)
PDS Compare is a feature that can help you verify the Patchs registration details for patients at your practice. It is enabled by default and should you not want this feature at your practice, you should contact the Support team to ask for it to be disabled
For digital patients, the PDS compare feature highlights in a warning banner, where there is a difference between the patient's details in Patchs and those on on PDS. It also highlights where a patient has been marked as deceased.