Overview
The Message Exchange for Social Care and Health (MESH) is the main messaging service used across health and social care. It works on the Spine infrastructure. It’s used to transfer electronic messages directly from one application to another, so different organisations can communicate securely. As an example, pathology labs use MESH to communicate test results to GP practices. MESH replaced the Data Transfer Service (DTS).
End users log into MESH either by using the MESH client, or through systems they use which have been integrated with MESH using the Application Programming Interface (API). In most cases the systems suppliers or IT administrators will handle the set-up of MESH for each organisation, and end users should get in touch with their organisation’s IT contacts with any questions about the service.