extends the README with Matt Stibbs's nhsnumber.info content

[pacharanero]

I have pulled in the content from @mattstibbs Matt Stibbs' nhsnumber.info pages and added them to the README.md

Also added some basic Installation and Usage info (pending checking/verification that it works as indicated) and a list of the current Authors/Contributors - at this stage really all the code in the repo is written by @andylaw but eventually all contributors will all have at least reviewed the code for errors, added improvements etc.

[andylaw]

@pacharanero - why is the Scotland range split into two entries in the table? Is there some functional or historical significance to that? Also, is there some reference source to define the separation and reservation of range for Ireland?

[pacharanero]

@andylaw I don't have a reference for the Republic of Ireland usage but I could do some further digging, it would be interesting to be able to report where a number is from, accurately.

Some information is from the Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHS_number and referenced, however I would have to defer to @mattstibbs for any more detail.

[eatyourpeas]

https://www.datadictionary.nhs.uk/attributes/health_and_care_number.html

From: Marcus Baw @.> Date: Tuesday, 23 May 2023 at 13:46 To: uk-fci/nhs-number @.> Cc: Subscribed @.***> Subject: Re: [uk-fci/nhs-number] extends the README with Matt Stibbs's nhsnumber.info content (PR #3)

@andylawhttps://github.com/andylaw I don't have a reference for the Republic of Ireland usage but I could do some further digging, it would be interesting to be able to report where a number is from, accurately.

Some information is from the Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHS_number and referenced, however I would have to defer to @mattstibbshttps://github.com/mattstibbs for any more detail.

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/uk-fci/nhs-number/pull/3#issuecomment-1559243844, or unsubscribehttps://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAICOV6G3DZ6PMQMVNTYCTTXHSWTFANCNFSM6AAAAAAYLZNTLE. You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.Message ID: @.***>

[andylaw]

@eatyourpeas - that reference describes the Northern Ireland block. I'm still not seeing any evidence that the Republic of Ireland has a block of numbers reserved in the UK NHS Number system.

@pacharanero - the Scottish block is one single block and should be represented as such in the table

@pacharanero - the number '1234567890' is not a valid NHS number and the call to is_valid() should return False

@pacharanero - there is no normalise() signature in the nhs-number package, plus the normalise_number() function does the opposite of what your example normalise() call does i.e. it removes spaces and hyphens leaving just a string of digits to process

[pacharanero]

Yes I probably shouldn't have pushed this PR yet, or marked it for review. It was very much a sketch of README content, needing further tidying. I'm on a train for 2 hours this evening so I should get time to improve it

[eatyourpeas]

Just adding this - It is likely others know more than me, but I am not sure RoI is within scope because the HSE is not really the same as the NHS, and while they have an IHI number, it is not an NHS number.

[andylaw]

I propose that the Republic of Ireland be considered out of scope

[pacharanero]

I agree that for now the Republic of Ireland be descoped for this package as it has no immediate relevance. I know people who work at the HSE on the IHI project and I did a bit of research yesterday into what exactly is used for the IHI in Ireland. If it turns out that they are using exactly the same validation technique as the NHS Number then it makes sense we would document that in this library. For now assume ROI descoped but I will bring this back if it makes sense to.

[pacharanero]

I found some corroborative evidence to support the assertion that a range of NHS Numbers was indeed reserved for ROI: https://digital.nhs.uk/about-nhs-digital/contact-us/freedom-of-information/freedom-of-information-disclosure-log/december-2022/nic-690159-k8h4z

I have contacted my HSE friend who will let me know exactly what validation algorithm and number range is being used by IHI.

I've fixed the issues with the README that were pointed out here:

@pacharanero - the number '1234567890' is not a valid NHS number and the call to is_valid() should return False

@pacharanero - there is no normalise() signature in the nhs-number package, plus the normalise_number() function does the opposite of what your example normalise() call does i.e. it removes spaces and hyphens leaving just a string of digits to process