"Nikos Yannacopoulos" wrote in
:

Don't you have something similar in the UK, like an NHS
registration number or something, assigned to a person virtually at
birth?


Yes but...

It is forbidden to use them for linking outside the health
service, even to store them on non-NHS systems

Anyway, nobody knows their number

Anyway, they are not duplicate-free (but what do you expect from
Government IT systems?)...

We also have National Insurance Numbers but they are not widely used
outside the taxation/ employment spheres, for reasons similar to above.

All the best


Tim F