SNOMED CT – Read Code Retirement

Important – Read Code Announcement from UK Terminology Centre

The UK Terminology Centre (which forms part of the Health and Social Care Information Centre, HSCIC.) has announced that it will be retiring Read codes which will be replaced by SNOMED CT terminology (see http://systems.hscic.gov.uk/data/uktc/readcodes) . As such there will be no further updates to Read Version 2 terminology after the April 2016 release. Read V2 (Scottish edition) is the de facto standard currently used in Scottish Primary care systems but it should be noted that it is also the intention of the UK Terminology Centre to phase out Read CTV3 also over a slightly longer period as detailed below. There will be no published release of CTV3 (Read codes version 3) in October 2016.

Timetable

The final release schedule for Read products is as timetabled below follows:

  • The final updated release of Read v2 is 1/4/2016
  • The date of withdrawal of Read v2 is 1/4/2020
  • The final updated release of Read v3 is 1/4/2018
  • The date of withdrawal of Read v3 is 1/4/2020

HSCIC are also undertaking developments to enable the withdrawal of Read drugs; both the Read Drug and Appliance Dictionary and CTV3 drugs (these have not been actively maintained since June 2006).

Requesting codes for the final release of Read V2

NHS Scotland customers requiring new Read codes for inclusion in the final update to Read V2 in April 2016 should contact the NSS Terminology helpdesk ( nss.terminologyhelp@nhs.net or telephone 0131-275-7283 (Tues-Thurs 9am-5pm) no later than 30 November 2015 for assistance in code request submissions to HSCIC.

Any enquiries in relation to Read codes should be sent to the NSS terminology helpdesk.

 Further Information

An assessment on the impact of Read withdrawal has been presented to the eHealth Clinical Change Governance Group (CCLG) and the eHealth Programme Board. Subsequently, a programme of work is to be established to take forward the transition from Read to SNOMED CT and further details will be available in due course.

For further general information on SNOMED CT please see the Terminology Services web pages at: http://www.isdscotland.org/Products-and-Services/Terminology-Services/Coding-and-Terminology-Systems/ .

Please note that this announcement does not affect the use of classification systems and there are no plans to withdraw the use of ICD10 or OPCS4.

A word and a PDF version of this confirmation is also available.

17 November 2015.