The General Medical Council allocates all doctors a GENERAL MEDICAL COUNCIL REFERENCE NUMBER on their first contact with the General Medical Council.

• If a doctor chooses to enter general practice in England or Wales, a further number is allocated by the NHS Business Services Authority. This number is referred to as the DOCTOR INDEX NUMBER.
• The DOCTOR INDEX NUMBER is used as the prescribing code on PRESCRIPTIONS.

A doctor can be both a GENERAL PRACTITIONER and a Hospital CONSULTANT, and therefore hold a DOCTOR INDEX NUMBER, GENERAL MEDICAL PRACTITIONER PPD CODE and a CONSULTANT CODE simultaneously.

For further information, see the:

• NHS Business Services Authority website at: Doctors Index Number (DIN)
• Organisation Data Service pages of the NHS England website at: Organisation Data Service : Primary Care: General Practitioners.

This attribute is also known by these names:

Context	Alias
shortname	DIN
plural	DOCTOR INDEX NUMBERS