UK Quarterly Project/2025/2025 Q2 Project: Healthcare
Welcome
For the second UK quarterly project of 2025, the focus is on Healthcare.
We have run similar quarterly projects before. See:
- 2020 Q2 Project: GP Surgeries and Healthsites
If you've got any questions or suggestions or just want to join in the discussion, see the Q2 Project thread in the OSM Community Forum.
Healthcare Facilities to Focus On
GP Surgeries and Private Doctors
Basic tagging: amenity=doctors + healthcare=doctor + name=*
Dental Surgeries (NHS and Private)
Basic tagging: amenity=dentist + healthcare=dentist + name=*
Hospitals & Clinics
Basic tagging:
- Hospitals:
amenity=hospital+healthcare=hospital+name=*
Consider also emergency=yes/no - whether the hospital offers emergency services.
- Emergency (A&E) entrance:
emergency=emergency_ward_entrance+entrance=* - Clinics:
amenity=clinic+healthcare=clinic+name=*+healthcare:speciality=*
Care Homes & Hospices
Basic tagging:
- Hospices:
amenity=hospice+healthcare=hospice+name=* - Residential facility with nursing care:
amenity=social_facility+social_facility=nursing_home+name=*+social_facility:for=* - Residential facility with non-nursing support:
amenity=social_facility+social_facility=group_home+name=*+social_facility:for=* - Private flats with light-touch support:
amenity=social_facility+social_facility=assisted_living+name=*+social_facility:for=*
Pharmacies
Basic tagging: amenity=pharmacy + healthcare=pharmacy + name=*
Data Sources
Streetlevel Imagery to confirm and update access routes to hospital grounds
Mapping UK Healthcare Locations in OSM by Robert Whittaker is an in development tool to compare mapped OSM data with data from a number of external data sources.
Tags
Suggested Mapping Activities
- Use the Healthcare Mapping Progress tool to identify missing and unexpected facilities in OSM, fix any tagging issues, and then add/remove objects based on local knowledge ground surveys.
- Use this Overpass Turbo Query to find objects tagged with
amenity=social_facilitybut nosocial_facility=*sub-tag. See if the missing sub-tag can be filled in either remotely from other sources (e.g. facility's website, or the data in https://osm.mathmos.net/healthcare/progress/ ), or after a ground survey. (As of 2025-03-09, there were 819 such objects.) - Improve the tagging of already mapped healthcare facilities, by adding missing names, websites, and addresses.