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Mental health inpatient discharge

A care record standard for information sharing so professionals can provide continuity of care when an adult is discharged from mental health services.

Contents

Documentation
View documentation for this standard

About this standard

Publisher
NHS England
Status
Active
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Active. Active standards are stable, maintained and have been approved, assured or endorsed for use by qualified bodies.

Deprecated Deprecated standards are available for use and are maintained, but are being phased out, so new functionality will not be added.

Retired standards Retired standards are not being maintained or supported and should not be used.

Standard type
Information standards
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Collections. A Collection is a systematic gathering of a specified selection of data or information for a particular stated purpose from existing records held within health and care systems and electronic devices.

Extractions. An extraction is a type of collection that is pulled from an operational system by the data controller and transmitted to the receiver without additional processing or transcription by the sender.

Information standards. Information standards are agreed ways of doing something, written down as a set of precise criteria so they can be used as rules, guidelines, or definitions.

Technical Standards and specifications. Technical standards and specifications specify how to make information available technically including how the data is structured and transported.

Contact point

england.standards.assurance@nhs.net

Using this standard

The Professional Record Standards Body (PRSB) were commissioned by NHS England to develop the following set of resources. These have been migrated into the NHS Standards Directory and will be managed by NHS England from 01 January 2026.

Associated medias
Is part of
  • Transfer of Care Initiative
    The Transfer of Care initiative has been mandated by the NHS Standard Contract. It includes a group of related standards covering inpatient, emergency care, mental health and outpatient settings.

Topics and care settings

Topic
  • Care records
  • Continuity of care
  • Demographics
  • Information governance
  • Key care information
  • Patient communication
  • Pharmacy, Medicines and Prescribing
  • Referrals
  • Tests and diagnostics
Care setting
  • Community health
  • Hospital
  • Mental health
  • Social care

Dependencies and related standards

Dependencies

This standard needs to be reviewed and implemented alongside:

  • SNOMED CT
  • Health Level 7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR)
    Health Level 7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (HL7 FHIR) is a standard for health care data exchange, published by HL7®.
  • Electronic systems both sending and receiving
Related standards

This standard relates to the group of standards by the PRSB known as the transfer of care standards.

Review Information

Contributor
Professional Record Standards Body (PRSB)

Legal basis

Licence information

NHS England permits the copying and re-use of Information Standards, in whole or in part, for commercial and non-commercial purposes but, to protect the integrity of the Information Standards, you are not permitted to adapt, amend or decompile the Information Standards for any purpose without our prior consent.

Licence

Crown Copyright https://digital.nhs.uk/about-nhs-digital/terms-and-conditions

More information

People with mental health problems require comprehensive, integrated physical and mental health care, both in hospital and the community. The Mental Health Inpatient Discharge Summary Standard ensures relevant information is shared among healthcare professionals, facilitating continuity of care when an adult is discharged from inpatient mental health services. About this standard The Mental Health Inpatient Discharge Summary Standard is designed to improve communication between secondary care providers and GPs. It ensures that timely and relevant information about a person’s care and treatment is accessible to GPs, community and acute mental health care teams, and social care professionals. This standard includes details on patient history, social context, medications, hospital admission details, and current and previous diagnoses. By recognising the unique nature of mental illness compared to physical illness, the standard uses inclusive and sympathetic language in its headings and clinical descriptions. This project supports NHS England’s interoperability efforts. Benefits:

  • Enhances professional communication and continuity of care.
  • Ensures timely access to relevant patient information.
  • Supports integrated care across different healthcare settings.
  • Uses inclusive language tailored to mental health care.
Scope
  • Adult discharge from inpatient mental health services
Out of Scope
  • Discharge from non-mental health inpatient stay – refer to the eDischarge Summary Standard
  • Discharge from emergency care – refer to the Emergency Care Discharge Standard
  • Transfer between hospitals – although much of the content may be appropriate
  • Discharge from outpatient treatment or other community based community-based period of treatment – refer to Outpatient letter standard
How it works The Mental Health Inpatient Discharge Summary Standard operates by ensuring that all relevant information is recorded and shared in a structured and coded format. This facilitates seamless communication and continuity of care across different healthcare settings. The hospital electronic patient record (EPR) is expected to be able to generate much of the discharge summary from information recorded in the record such as diagnoses, procedures, medications, investigation results, assessments, patient demographics and other administrative information, with the person completing the record adding other information such as the clinical summary, plan and requested actions. For full implementation the discharge information should be sent as electronic message using the NHS standard for messaging, HL7 FHIR, detailed here: Transfer of Care message specifications – NHS England

Page last updated: 30 March 2026