Request

You asked us:

Surrey Heartlands has recently implemented an Appliance Prescription Management Service (SH APMS) for Stoma, Catheter, Accessories and Associated Additional Products. All prescriptions going through this service use the same ODS Code (Y08792). Could I have the full English Prescribing Data with Patient Postcode district added for prescriptions processed through this code.

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 15 December 2025.

We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000.

Our response

I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds the information you have requested and a copy of the information is attached.

Please read the below notes to ensure understanding of the data.

NHS Prescription Services process prescriptions for Pharmacy Contractors, Appliance Contractors, Dispensing Doctors and Personal Administration with information then used to make payments to pharmacists and appliance contractors in England for prescriptions dispensed in primary care settings (other arrangements are in place for making payments to Dispensing Doctors and Personal Administration). This involves processing over 1 billion prescription items and payments totalling over £9 billion each year. The information gathered from this process is then used to provide information on costs and trends in prescribing in England and Wales to over 25,000 registered NHS and Department of Health and Social Care users.

Data Source

The data source was the NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse.

Exclusions

The Data excludes:

• Items not dispensed, disallowed and those returned to the contractor for further clarification.
• Prescriptions prescribed and dispensed in Prisons, Hospitals and Private prescriptions.
• Items prescribed but not presented for dispensing or not submitted to NHS Prescription Services by the dispenser.
• Items supplied as part of a Pharmacy First consultation or service.

Time Period

Answers are based on July 2025 to September 2025 processing data. We can confirm that, as per the data, there is no information held on August prescribing, which indicates that no prescribing took place that meets the criteria of your request.

Drugs

No limitation on drugs

Organisation Data

Limited to prescribing by NHS SURREY ICB - APPLIANCE SERVICE (Y08792)

Patient Postcode Area

Patient postcode is taken from the latest Patient Demographic Service (PDS) data held by NHSBSA at the time of processing the prescription. If no postcode data is held, then the postcode is listed as "Unknown".

Data Queries

Please contact foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk ensuring you quote the above reference if you have any specific questions regarding this response; or, if you feel you may be misunderstanding or misinterpreting the information; or, if you plan on publishing the data.