OpenAthens eligibility

Examples:

• NHS Trusts

• GP practices

• NHS Treatment Centres

• Defence Medical Services

• Prison Healthcare Services.

Examples:

• independent, private, charitable and voluntary sector organisations

• local authority organisations which provide NHS-commissioned care or work in partnership with the NHS to provide care to NHS patients, including:

  • dental practices

  • pharmacies

  • hospices

  • cancer support charities

  • state-funded school nurses

  • social enterprise organisations.

• government-funded bodies which provide public health services and organisations that work in partnership with NHS organisations.

Examples:

• Integrated Care Boards

• Commissioning Support Units

• Local Authorities, including those in a Public Health role.

Examples:

• The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)

• NHS England

• the Care Quality Commission

• DHSC ‘Arm’s Length Bodies’ including:

  • Special Health Authorities

  • Executive Agencies and Non Departmental Public Bodies

  • DHSC-owned companies.

Examples:

• local authorities

• Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service

• Social Care Institute for Excellence

• Skills for Care

• Centre for Excellence and Outcomes in Children and Young People's Services.

Examples:

• registered medical practitioners

• dentists

• dispensing and ophthalmic opticians

• pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and dispensing staff

• registered professionals recognised by the Nursing and Midwifery Council and by the Health Professions Council, including independent sector nurses providing cancer care.

Examples:

• educators contracted to provide training to the NHS

• librarians delivering services to NHS

• researchers contracted to do DHSC-funded or NHS-funded research.

Note: Healthcare students at universities which have an OpenAthens administrator can have an NHS OpenAthens account for the duration of their course. Students at these universities will have NHS accounts set up for them by their administrator and should not attempt to register online. Healthcare students can also register for an NHS OpenAthens account when on their NHS placement.

Note: Only those patients, carers and members of the public that have access to local NHS library & knowledge service premises in England can access NHS purchased content.

Examples:

• NHS volunteers

• employees of partners which provide maintenance, catering and portering services in hospitals

• individual representatives of NHS-related collaboratives, for example:

  • HealthWatch

  • Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care

  • individual public-sector employees working in partnership with the NHS e.g. coroner, health service ombudsman, police officer

• registered members of NHS library services;

• at the discretion of NHS librarians, retired NHS staff who have retained their professional registration.

The following individual applications are excluded:

• Persons working for private organisations commissioned to provide NHS care that do not provide direct clinical care for NHS patients.

  Examples: Managers and administrators in private health and social care organisations, Locum Doctors between placements

The following organisations are excluded (except where individuals are eligible authorised users)

• royal colleges

• higher education institutions

• private sector organisations which solely provide non-NHS commissioned care

• private sector organisations which provide consultancy services to the NHS

• pharmaceutical companies

• health-related research and information charities which do not provide NHS commissioned care or are not commissioned by the NHS to provide research and information

• commercial information providers.