Glossary

The NHS and government run on acronyms.

Here are a few common acronyms and abbreviations to help everyone’s understanding in the workplace.

Departments / organisations

AOMRC
Academy of Medical Royal Colleges
BEIS
Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy
BMA
The British Medical Association
CCG
Clinical Commissioning Group
CPA
Commonwealth Parliamentary Association
CSU
Commissioning Support Unit
DAC
Digital Accessibility Centre
DCMS
Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport
DfE
Department for Education
DfT
Department for Transport
‘DHSC’ or ‘DH’ or ‘DoH’
Department of Health and Social Care
DWP
Department for Work and Pensions
GP
General Practitioner (Doctor) / General Practice
HMRC
His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs
HO
Home Office
ICS
Integrated Care System
IHPN
Independent Healthcare Provider Network
LGA
Local Government Association
MOJ
Ministry of Justice
MTI
Medical Training Initiative
NCF
National Care Forum
NCSC
National Cyber Security Centre
NHS
National Health Service
NHSBSA
National Health Service Business Services Authority
NIST
National Institute of Standards and Technology (US)
PCN
Primary Care Network
STP
Sustainability and Transformation Partnership
UKHCA
United Kingdom Homecare Association
UKHSA
United Kingdom Health Security Agency
‘UKV&I’ or 'UKVI’
UK Visas and Immigration

Job role / disciplines

BA
Business Analyst
BE Dev
Backend Developer
CD
Content Designer
Dev
Developer
DM
Delivery Manager
FE Dev
Frontend Developer
IxD
Interaction Designer
MHFA
Mental Health First Aider
PE or DevOps
Platform Engineer / DevOps Engineer
PM
Project Manager
PO
Product Owner
SD
Service Designer
TM
Team Manager
UCD
User Centered Design

Teams

CCS
Contact Centre Services
DDaT
Digital, Data and Technology
SIAM
Service Integration and Management
T&P
Technical and Procedural
CI
Customer Insight
IG
Information Governance
IS
Information Security
SecOps
Security Operations
SHE
Safety, Health and Environment

Services / Projects

Citizen Services

AIE
Am I Exempt?
CRA
Citizen Rights Agreement
BLC
Baby Loss Certificate
DCR
Death Certificate Reform
DECS
Dental Exemption Checking Service
EC
Exemption Checker
EHIC
European Health Insurance Card
EIBSS
England Infected Blood Support Scheme
HES
Health Exemption Services
HRT PPC
Hormone Replacement Therapy Prescription Prepayment Certificate
HS
Healthy Start
HwHC
Help with Health Costs
IHS
Immigration Health Surcharge
LIS
Low Income Scheme
PECS
Prescription Exemption Checking Service
PPC
Prescription Prepayment Certificate
PS
Patient Services
MATEX
Maternity Exemptions
MCCD
Medical Certificate of Cause of Death
MEDEX
Medical Exemptions
MES
Medical Examiners Service
OHS
Overseas Healthcare Services
OHS-CR
Overseas Healthcare Services Cost Recovery
RTEC
Real Time Exemption Check
TECS
Transforming Exemption Checking Services
UK GHIC
UK Global Health Insurance Card
VDPS
Vaccine Damage Payment Service

Workforce Services

ESR
Employment Staff Record
LSF
Learning Support Fund
NHSJ
NHS Jobs
NHSV
NHS Volunteering
SB
Student Bursaries
SWB
Social Work Bursaries

Primary Care Services

BMS
Branded Medicines Service
CDR
Common Drug Reference
DaSH
Discontinuations and Shortages Portal
DMD
Dictionary of Medicines and Devices
DPC
Direct Payments to Contractors
MMP
Medicines Management Portal
MYS
Manage Your Service

Software / resources

DWH
Data warehouse
eOPS
Business Intelligence system for ophthalmic data (eye care)
ePACT2
Business Intelligence system for prescribing and cost data
GA
Google Analytics
KB
Knowledge Base
MESH
Message Exchange for Social Care and Health
RINA
Reference Implementation for National Applications
SCRa
Summary Care Record application

Improve the playbook

If you spot anything factually incorrect with this page or have ideas for improvement, please share your suggestions.

Before you start, you will need a GitHub account. Github is an open forum where we collect feedback.