# NHS England primary care datasets
>Last modified: 21 May 2026
<div style="background-color: rgba(0, 178, 169, 0.3); padding: 5px; border-radius: 5px;"><strong>Primary care datasets cover GP records, prescriptions and community care in England.</strong></div>  
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>## Summary:
>* UK LLC holds **three NHS England primary care datasets**: [**General Practice Extraction Service (GPES) Data for Pandemic Planning and Research (GDPPR)**](../primary_care_datasets/gdppr/gdppr.ipynb), [**Medicines Dispensed in Primary Care (NHSBSA data) (PCM)**](../primary_care_datasets/pcm/pcm.ipynb) and [**Community Services Data Set (CSDS)**](../primary_care_datasets/csds/csds.ipynb).
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>* Researchers are permitted access to the **GDPPR dataset** under two **specific terms** set by NHS England:  
&nbsp; 1. Research must be related to **COVID-19**. For examples of research purposes acceptable to NHS England see the [**COVID-19 Public Health Directions 2020**.](https://digital.nhs.uk/about-nhs-digital/corporate-information-and-documents/directions-and-data-provision-notices/secretary-of-state-directions/covid-19-public-health-directions-2020#:~:text=identifying%20and%20understanding)  
&nbsp;2. The GDPPR dataset must **not** be used for any form of performance management of General Practices.
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> * Both the GDPPR and PCM datasets use primarily **SNOMED CT codes**. See the [**Coded variables guide**](../coding/coding_intro.md) for further details.


## Overview of primary care datasets
For further information see the **individual dataset guides.**  

**Table 1** Names, geographical coverage and availability of Primary Care datasets in the UK LLC TRE
|**Dataset**|**Dataset name**|**Grouping**|**Coverage**|**Data available in TRE**|
|---|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:|
|[**GDPPR**](../primary_care_datasets/gdppr/gdppr.ipynb)|General Practice Extraction Service (GPES) Data for Pandemic Planning and Research|GP records|England|1940s onwards|
|[**PCM**](../primary_care_datasets/pcm/pcm.ipynb)|Medicines Dispensed in Primary Care (NHSBSA data)|Prescriptions|England|01/04/2015 onwards|
|[**CSDS**](../primary_care_datasets/csds/csds.ipynb)|Community Services Data Set (CSDS)|Community|England|01/04/2015 onwards||