Dispensing appliance contractors commissioned under a primary care contract may use the NHS primary care logo on information relating to the NHS services they provide in the same way as other primary care contractors.
The single NHS Identity was introduced in 1999 to clearly signpost patients to NHS organisations and services. It is the visual representation of the values and purpose of the NHS — a national service, accessible and free to all. Since being introduced, the NHS Identity is now instantly recognised by 98% of the public.
The Star of Life is used in some countries as a symbol denoting ambulances, paramedics and other emergency medical services . Copyright in the symbol is believed to belong to the United States Government, which seems to be happy to allow such use.
The letters ‘NHS’ and the NHS logo (lozenge) are protected by law. They are UK trade marks owned by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. Therefore, they can only be used by external organisations in certain circumstances and with written permission.
The process for changing your NHS organisation's name differs depending on whether your organisation is an NHS Trust, an NHS Foundation Trust or a Clinical Commissioning Group. The different processes are explained in the guidelines section on NHS naming principles.
The NHS colour palette has been expanded to give NHS organisations the flexibility to visually differentiate their communications from each other, but not from the NHS.