The register was established in the early 1950s to facilitate the transfer of patients between Health Board areas or across borders within the countries of the United Kingdom.
However, its role has expanded over the decades and it now also provides Scottish local authorities with a Unique Citizen Reference Number or UCRN used to identify people on their own databases.
[1] In 2006, the Scottish Government and the National Records of Scotland made a major expansion of the applications of the NHSCR by changing regulations with section 57 of the Local Electoral Administration and Registration Services (Scotland) Act 2006.
[1] In 2015, the Scottish Government proposed expanding access to the NHSCR to more than 100 additional public bodies.
[9][10] As of March 2010, uptake of this number (based on radiology requests) varied across Scotland from 96.5% to 99.9% depending on the local NHS Board.