Terminology products
NHS England is responsible for the UK implementation and management of SNOMED CT, the Read Codes, and other terminology products used in health and care. This includes associated tools and derivative resources.
NHS England maintains the NHS Dictionary of Medicines and Devices (dm+d) in partnership with the NHS Business Services Authority.
News and release notices
Increasing SNOMED International description length limits
SNOMED International has confirmed the planned change to increase the maximum length of Fully Specified Name (FSN) and Synonym descriptions from 255 characters to 4,096 characters.
This change will be implemented in the 1 July 2026 International Edition release and will come into effect in the October 2026 UK Edition release.
See the news article on Delen for more information.
NHS England is seeking views from SNOMED CT users in the UK through a survey to help identify if additional information or support may be needed to prepare for the change, and to understand the most effective ways to communicate and share that information.
Your feedback will help NHS England decide whether further guidance or engagement is required to support users beyond that which SNOMED International is providing.
Please complete the survey by 5pm on Wednesday 10 December 2025.
If you have any issues completing the survey, contact: information.standards@nhs.net
Aligning the SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension model with SNOMED International
Following the phase 1 changes implemented in October 2025, NHS England is now progressing with the phase 2 changes.
The NHS England web page on aligning dm+d VMPP class medicinal products to the SNOMED International drug model has been updated with information about the changes, including examples and diagrams to help explain them.
Test files with the phase 2 changes to the SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension are available on Delen.
The changes are planned to be implemented in the first quarter of 2026.
In preparation, NHS England is asking SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension users to complete a survey so they can understand the effect the changes may have. Your feedback will help NHS England work with you to implement these changes.
Please submit your survey response by 5pm Friday 28 November 2025.
If you have any issues completing the survey or would like to discuss this work further, contact: nhsdigital.ukmeds@nhs.net
SNOMED CT human-readable subset - UK Drug Extension
A new release of item SNOMED CT human-readable subset - UK Drug Extension is available.
SNOMED CT UK Query Table and History Substitution Table
A new release of item SNOMED CT UK Query Table and History Substitution Table is available.
UK Drug bonus files
A new release of item UK Drug bonus files is available.
SNOMED CT UK Monolith Edition, RF2: Snapshot
A new release of item SNOMED CT UK Monolith Edition, RF2: Snapshot is available.
SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension, RF2
New releases are available:
Read older news and release notices in the news archive.