GUMCAD: clinical coding guidance

Source: UK Health Security Agency Date: 2026-02-10 Category: Guidance Feed: ukhsa_official

Summary

GUMCAD is England’s mandatory surveillance system for sexually transmitted infections (STIs). This guidance enables frontline staff at specialist and non-specialist sexual health services to record and report STI testing, diagnoses, and service delivery data consistently across all commissioned services.

Scope and Coverage

The clinical coding guidance addresses:

• STI tests and diagnoses across all commissioned sexual health services
• HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) activity coding
• Sexual health and HIV service activity documentation

Target services:

• Commissioned specialist (level 3) sexual health services
• Commissioned non-specialist (level 2) providers throughout England

Major Coding Standards Transition

A significant transition is underway regarding terminology systems. The guidance notes that “all NHS healthcare providers in England must now use SNOMED CT for capturing clinical terms within electronic patient record systems.”

Three Accepted Coding Approaches (during implementation)

1. SNOMED CT (the new standard)
2. SHHAPT (Sexual Health and HIV Activity Property Types) codes
3. Read Codes (legacy system)

Legacy systems will eventually retire once all providers migrate to SNOMED CT.

Supporting Surveillance

This framework enables:

• Consistent data collection across England’s sexual health infrastructure
• Public health monitoring of STI trends and patterns
• Epidemiological tracking for disease surveillance
• Service evaluation for STI prevention and management initiatives

Public Health Significance

Standardized clinical coding is essential for accurate national surveillance, enabling UKHSA to monitor STI epidemiology, identify outbreaks, evaluate intervention effectiveness, and inform sexual health policy decisions. The transition to SNOMED CT aligns sexual health surveillance with broader NHS digital transformation initiatives.