IHS Number V NHS Number

Morning,  My wife has just entered the country under a Spousal Visa and as part of that had to pay a Health Service Charge with gave her a IHS Number.

We are now filling the forms in to register her at my local doctors and one of the questions is supply NHS Number.  On her documentation she has received we can not see anything that is specific to NHS apart from one that starts IHSxxxxxxxx is this the one to use in her case would you know?

Thank you in advance

Just mark that she doesn't have one. She will be sent her NHS number once the surgery accepts her.

She won't have an NHS number, because she hasn't registered with a GP yet (unless she has used the NHS in the past as a visitor or on another visa, in which case she may have been issued with one then).

So, she just leaves it blank, and will be assigned an NHS number when they register her in the computer system.

The IHS number is completely different - that's just used by UKVI to show she's paid the surcharge.

Thanks for the quick response as always.

Simon

Your wife will also need to show her BRP if she needs treatment at hospital, which means she can then use the NHS without being billed.

The instructions to the NHS staff are to check the persons BRP and to also look on their SPINE computer system. UKVI will use banners on the NHS SPINE.  Green banner on that name meaning that the NHS must not bill and a red banner if they must bill, even if the person is showing them an in date BRP  for free treatment e.g. a red banner will be put on if that person had their visa revoked. The NHS can also phone UKVI to check if they must bill.

That doesn't mean that in the event of an emergency you have to rush home to get her BRP. You can show that at a later date so that an invoice will either not be raised or will be cancelled.

The instructions to the NHS staff are to check the persons BRP and to also look on their SPINE computer system.

I helped set up and put the Spine in some years ago, it sent me Grey!. :-)