# General Osteopathic Council Register Scraper (`vexaloom-labs/general-osteopathic-council-register-scraper`) Actor

Search the General Osteopathic Council's public register (osteopathy.org.uk) by postcode/town, surname, or practice features, or look up exact registration numbers. Returns status, qualifications, training, and practice details.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/vexaloom-labs/general-osteopathic-council-register-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [vexaloom-labs](https://apify.com/vexaloom-labs) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Automation, Other
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.49 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## UK Osteopath Register (GOsC) Scraper

Check UK osteopaths against the **General Osteopathic Council (GOsC)** statutory public register at `osteopathy.org.uk`. The actor reads the register's own server-rendered pages without a browser, login, cookie, API key or proxy, and returns structured records for patient checks, credentialing, directories and research.

### What it returns

Each dataset item is one registrant:

- **Identity**: `registrantId`, `registrationNumber`, `name`, `title`, `firstName`, `lastName`, `gender`
- **Registration**: `practisingStatus`, `statusCategory`, `isPractising`, `hasConditions`, `sanction`, `dateOfRegistration`, `dateOfRegistrationRaw`
- **Regulatory context**: `hasHearingNotes`, `hearingNotesUrl` (the GOsC hearing-decision page linked from the register entry)
- **Education**: `qualifications`, `placeOfTraining`, `qualificationDate`, `qualificationYear`
- **Contact**: `email`, `contactNumber`
- **Practices**: `practices[]` with `name`, `practiceUrl`, `address`, `postcode`, `openingHours`, `email`, `phone`, `website`, `homeVisits`, `disabledAccess`, `welshSpoken`, plus optional `latitude`, `longitude`, `distanceMiles`
- **Practice summary**: `primaryPracticeName`, `primaryPracticeTown`, `primaryPracticePostcode`, `practiceCount`, and `website` (the first available practice website, which may belong to a secondary practice)
- **Provenance**: `sourceUrl`, `searchQuery`, `source`, `recordType`, `scrapedAt`

Empty values are omitted at every depth. Boolean practice facilities and derived status flags are retained even when false.

### Three ways to query

| Mode | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| `search` | Exact surname, exact town/county/country, postcode/outcode with radius, and practice-feature filters | Finding one person, a local cluster, or accessible/home-visit practices |
| `byRegistrationNumbers` | Looks up exact GOsC numbers, accepts strings or integers, strips leading zeros, ignores duplicates and invalid all-zero values | Verifying a list of practitioners from a spreadsheet or CRM |
| `fullRegister` | Pages through every practice-linked registrant in the browse, currently about 5,688 unique people across 481 pages of practice cards | Building a complete UK osteopath directory |

`search` with no surname or location behaves like the old browse-all search. `fullRegister` is the explicit heavy-crawl mode and ignores surname, location and registration inputs while still honouring practice-feature and post-fetch filters.

### Inputs

| Field | Type | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| `mode` | select | `search` | `search`, `byRegistrationNumbers` or `fullRegister` |
| `surname` | text | – | Exact, case-insensitive surname; partial surnames do not match |
| `location` | text | – | Exact town/county/country, or UK postcode/outcode |
| `radius` | select | `10mi` | `5mi`, `10mi`, `25mi`, `50mi`; used for postcode/outcode searches |
| `firstName` | text | – | Case-insensitive contains filter on the parsed first name |
| `disabilityAccess` | boolean | `false` | Partial access counts as access, matching the register |
| `homeVisit` | boolean | `false` | Practice reports home visits |
| `welshSpoken` | boolean | `false` | Practice reports Welsh spoken |
| `status` | select | any | Exact status filter: Fully Registered, Non Practising, Practising Overseas, Suspended, Conditions of Practice, Undertaking |
| `registeredAfter` | text | – | ISO `YYYY-MM-DD`, inclusive |
| `registeredBefore` | text | – | ISO `YYYY-MM-DD`, inclusive |
| `qualificationContains` | text | – | Case-insensitive substring over qualifications |
| `registrationNumbers` | array | – | Exact GOsC numbers for lookup mode |
| `maxItems` | integer | `50` | 1–10,000 hard cap on emitted records |

Saved tasks that still send `postcode`, `name`, `registrationNumber` or `radiusMiles` keep working: those legacy keys are mapped in code, not shown as inputs.

### Examples

Find osteopaths with a surname near a postcode:

```json
{
  "mode": "search",
  "surname": "Smith",
  "location": "SW1A 1AA",
  "radius": "10mi",
  "maxItems": 25
}
```

Check a mixed list of registration numbers:

```json
{
  "mode": "byRegistrationNumbers",
  "registrationNumbers": ["1766", "8123", 10877, "99999999"],
  "maxItems": 10
}
```

Find regulatory cases:

```json
{
  "mode": "search",
  "status": "Conditions of Practice",
  "maxItems": 50
}
```

Build a directory sample:

```json
{
  "mode": "fullRegister",
  "disabilityAccess": true,
  "maxItems": 500
}
```

### Statuses and regulatory flags

The register publishes six practising statuses. The actor keeps the original text in `practisingStatus` and adds a stable machine-readable layer:

| Status | `statusCategory` | `isPractising` | `hasConditions` | `sanction` |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fully Registered | `practising` | true | false | – |
| Non Practising | `nonPractising` | false | false | – |
| Practising Overseas | `practisingOverseas` | true | false | – |
| Suspended | `suspended` | false | false | `Suspended` |
| Conditions of Practice | `conditions` | true | true | `Conditions of Practice` |
| Undertaking | `undertaking` | true | true | `Undertaking` |

An unrecognised future status is preserved in `practisingStatus`, mapped to `statusCategory: other`, and logged once. Regulatory entries carry `hearingNotesUrl` and `hasHearingNotes`; the linked PDF is not parsed.

### Location and distance

When `location` is supplied in `search` mode, the actor geocodes the origin through postcodes.io (postcode, outcode, then place-name lookup). Practice postcodes are geocoded in batches of 100, cached for the run, and used to add `latitude`, `longitude`, `distanceMiles` on each practice and the lowest distance on the record. Distance is haversine miles from the origin. If geocoding fails, records are still returned without distance fields; the run never fails because of the geocoder.

### How pagination works

The register shows 12 practice cards per page and states the total as `results of N`. The actor computes `ceil(N / 12)` pages, so the final unlinked page is included (the old actor missed it). It stops on `maxItems`, an empty page, a repeated page signature, no new registrant IDs, or the computed last page. It does not use the largest pagination link as the total. A full browse currently needs 481 pages; pages beyond the last repeat the last page.

Practice cards can list several practitioners, so one page can yield more than 12 registrant IDs. Records are deduplicated by `registrantId`. The 5,761 browse figure is practices, not people; the current browse resolves to 5,688 unique registrant IDs.

### Data quality

- Placeholder practices such as `Practice Details`, `Practice Details Pending` and `Not Listed` are removed.
- Practices are deduplicated by normalised name, address and phone, so legitimate branches at different addresses are kept.
- Compact and oddly spaced postcodes are normalised; unparseable postcodes are omitted rather than guessed.
- Websites gain `https://` when the source prints a bare domain; non-URL values are dropped.
- `Not Listed`, `N/A`, punctuation-only phone numbers and other sentinels are omitted.

### Limitations

- The browse is practice-centric. Osteopaths with no practice listing, including some suspended registrants, do not appear in `fullRegister`; exact surname or registration lookup still finds them.
- `status`, `firstName`, `qualificationContains`, `registeredAfter` and `registeredBefore` are post-fetch filters. A search that uses only those filters pages through the register to find matches, so it can be slow; combine them with a surname or location where possible. A status-only `Suspended` search cannot find practice-less suspended records in the browse; use a surname or registration number for those.
- Removed or erased registrants are not returned by the public search at all.
- The register's `robots.txt` disallows `/register-search/`. The actor uses low concurrency, polite pacing and only the pages needed for the requested records; it is intended for verification and directory use, not bulk republication.
- Hearing-decision documents are linked, not downloaded or text-extracted.
- Overseas practices often have no UK postcode, so distance and coordinates are omitted for them. Town and county extraction from overseas addresses is best-effort and may return a region or postal-code fragment when the source address has no clear town.
- The full register is a large crawl: request `maxItems` deliberately and allow a generous run timeout for thousands of rows.

### Performance and reliability

The actor uses HTTP/2 server-rendered requests at 1024 MB, with detail concurrency 6 and 0.2–0.4 s pacing. It retries 403/429/5xx responses with exponential backoff, skips records that cannot be parsed, and resumes safely after a platform migration without duplicate rows or overshooting `maxItems`. It needs no browser, credentials or proxy.

### FAQ

**Is this the official register?**
Yes. Every record comes from the General Osteopathic Council's own public register search at `osteopathy.org.uk/register-search/`, the same register patients use to verify an osteopath.

**Why does a partial surname return nothing?**
The register's surname search is exact and case-insensitive. `Smith` matches Smith, but `Smit` does not. Use the full surname, or combine a first-name filter with location or practice features.

**Why is the browse total 5,761 but the full register smaller?**
The published 5,761 is the number of practice cards. Each card can list several practitioners, and many practitioners appear on more than one card. Deduplicating registrant IDs gives about 5,688 unique people today.

**Can it find a suspended osteopath with no practice?**
Yes, through exact surname or registration-number lookup. Such a person is absent from the practice-centric browse, so `fullRegister` cannot enumerate them.

**Do I need a login, cookie, API key or proxy?**
No. The register is public and the actor makes anonymous requests. Nothing is stored or sent to a third party except optional postcode geocoding through postcodes.io.

**What do the status flags mean?**
`isPractising` is true for Fully Registered, Practising Overseas, Conditions of Practice and Undertaking, and false for Non Practising and Suspended. `hasConditions` is true for Conditions of Practice and Undertaking. `sanction` names the regulatory status for Suspended, Conditions of Practice and Undertaking.

**Where do hearing notes come from?**
Regulatory entries publish a `View hearing notes` link beside the status. The actor stores its absolute URL in `hearingNotesUrl`; it does not parse the linked decision document.

**Why do some practices have no postcode or distance?**
Overseas practices and some incomplete addresses do not contain a UK postcode. The actor keeps the address text and omits unparseable postcode, coordinate and distance fields rather than inventing values.

**How long does a full-register run take?**
The register has 481 pages of practice cards and about 5,688 unique registrants. Detail enrichment is concurrency-limited and paced politely, so a complete crawl takes minutes and should be run with a deliberate `maxItems` and an adequate timeout.

# Actor input Schema

## `mode` (type: `string`):

Choose how to query the register.

## `surname` (type: `string`):

Exact surname as held by the register, case-insensitive (for example Smith). Partial surnames such as Smit do not match. Combine with location or practice features to narrow results.

## `location` (type: `string`):

Exact town, county or country name, or a UK postcode/outcode such as SW1A 1AA or SW1A. Town names must match the register's own location labels.

## `radius` (type: `string`):

Radius used when location is a UK postcode or outcode. Town and county searches use the register's own boundary.

## `firstName` (type: `string`):

Optional case-insensitive contains filter applied to the first-name part of the register name.

## `disabilityAccess` (type: `boolean`):

Only return osteopaths whose practice reports disabled access. Partial access counts as access, matching the register's own filter.

## `homeVisit` (type: `boolean`):

Only return osteopaths whose practice reports home visits.

## `welshSpoken` (type: `boolean`):

Only return osteopaths whose practice reports that Welsh is spoken.

## `status` (type: `string`):

Optional exact status filter applied after each register entry is read. Leave blank for every status.

## `registeredAfter` (type: `string`):

Optional ISO date (YYYY-MM-DD). Only return entries whose date of registration is on or after this date.

## `registeredBefore` (type: `string`):

Optional ISO date (YYYY-MM-DD). Only return entries whose date of registration is on or before this date.

## `qualificationContains` (type: `string`):

Optional case-insensitive text filter over the published qualifications, for example Ost or DO.

## `registrationNumbers` (type: `array`):

Exact registration numbers for byRegistrationNumbers mode. Strings or integers are accepted; duplicates and leading zeros are normalised. Only the first 10,000 unique numbers are read.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Hard cap on emitted osteopath records. The full practice-linked register currently holds about 5,688 unique registrants.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "search",
  "surname": "Smith",
  "radius": "10mi",
  "disabilityAccess": false,
  "homeVisit": false,
  "welshSpoken": false,
  "status": "",
  "registrationNumbers": [
    "1766"
  ],
  "maxItems": 3
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `osteopaths` (type: `string`):

Dataset containing every scraped osteopath registrant.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "mode": "search",
    "surname": "Smith",
    "radius": "10mi",
    "disabilityAccess": false,
    "homeVisit": false,
    "welshSpoken": false,
    "status": "",
    "registrationNumbers": [
        "1766"
    ],
    "maxItems": 3
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("vexaloom-labs/general-osteopathic-council-register-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "mode": "search",
    "surname": "Smith",
    "radius": "10mi",
    "disabilityAccess": False,
    "homeVisit": False,
    "welshSpoken": False,
    "status": "",
    "registrationNumbers": ["1766"],
    "maxItems": 3,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("vexaloom-labs/general-osteopathic-council-register-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "mode": "search",
  "surname": "Smith",
  "radius": "10mi",
  "disabilityAccess": false,
  "homeVisit": false,
  "welshSpoken": false,
  "status": "",
  "registrationNumbers": [
    "1766"
  ],
  "maxItems": 3
}' |
apify call vexaloom-labs/general-osteopathic-council-register-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,vexaloom-labs/general-osteopathic-council-register-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/D0z92JrueW1JAhXKL/builds/SH8rgwf1fMdTdbNJP/openapi.json