NHS Digital is responsible for the UK management of SNOMED CT, the Read Codes and other products to support the implementation of terminology, including tools and derivative products.
NHS Digital maintains the NHS Dictionary of Medicines and Devices (dm+d) in partnership with the NHS Business Service Authority.
As part of the national strategy to move to a single terminology across health and care, NHS Digital is in the process of withdrawing the Read Codes. The Standardisation Committee for Care gave notice in December 2014 of this planned withdrawal. Read more on the retirement of Read Version 2 and Clinical Terms Version 3.
SNOMED International plans to stop using Concept Non Current (CNC) indicators in the International Edition of SNOMED CT from 1 January 2026.
At the moment, CNC indicators are added to active descriptions when a concept becomes inactive. Under the new plan, this will no longer happen. All current CNC indicators will also be made inactive, but they will remain in place as inactive components.
You can read more in the SNOMED International document:
Concept Non Current indicators – Notice of Deprecation
This change will affect SNOMED CT systems that use CNC indicators. It will first appear in the April 2026 UK release.
SNOMED International is asking for feedback on this proposal by
30 May 2025.
To respond, fill in their feedback form:
Concept Non Current Indicators Deprecation - Feedback Form
If you have questions about the proposal, email:
information.standards@nhs.net
6 May 2025 11:42 am
This is an update to the post on Delen in January 2025 about a proposal from SNOMED International. The proposal is to increase the maximum length of Fully Specified Name (FSN) and Synonym descriptions from 255 to 4,096 characters.
SNOMED International has published more details about the proposal. You can read these in their PDF document: March 2025 date approval MF BN 20250326 v1.00.pdf.
They've also written a blog post, which is available on the SNOMED International website.
This change will affect UK users who use content from the Medicinal Product Hierarchy in either the SNOMED CT International Edition or the SNOMED CT UK Edition.
It will also affect FSNs created in the SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension.
The proposal will not affect Preferred Terms (PTs) in the SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension or the NHS Dictionary of Medicines and Devices (dm+d). We're not planning any changes to the dm+d as a result of this proposal.
SNOMED International has postponed the proposed implementation date to July 2026. This gives users more time to prepare. The change will take effect in the October 2026 UK release.
If you need more time to prepare or have questions, email information.standards@nhs.net by 29 April 2025.
16 April 2025 9:00 am
A new release of item SNOMED CT UK Data Migration Workbench is available.
16 April 2025 7:16 am
New releases are available:
16 April 2025 7:16 am
A new release of item SNOMED CT UK Query Table and History Substitution Table is available.
16 April 2025 7:16 am
A new release of item SNOMED CT UK Monolith Edition, RF2: Snapshot is available.
16 April 2025 7:16 am
New releases are available:
16 April 2025 7:16 am
New releases are available:
16 April 2025 7:16 am
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