FOI-03301 - FOI_03301 - Open Data Portal

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Alert 29 August 2025

Deployment completed.

The follow-up deployment on the NHSBSA Open Data Portal has now been completed. This release addresses outstanding actions from the previous update and delivers improvements as detailed in this news article.

If you encounter any issues or require support, please contact us at DataServicesSupport@nhsbsa.nhs.uk.

Additional Info

Field	Value
Data last updated	27 November 2025
Metadata last updated	27 November 2025
Created	27 November 2025
Format	text/csv
Licence	Open Government Licence 3.0 (United Kingdom)

Data Dictionary

Column	Title	Type	Description
CALENDAR_YEAR	Calendar Year	string	Indicates the relevant calendar year for each row of data.
DISPENSING_COUNTRY_NAME	Dispensing Country Name	string	The name of the country in which the presentations were dispensed
BNF_PRESENTATION_CODE	BNF Code	string	The BNF Code is a 15-digit code in which the first seven digits are allocated according to the categories in the BNF and the last 8 digits represent the medicinal product, form, strength and the link to the generic equivalent product. NHS Prescription Services has created pseudo BNF chapters, which are not published, for items not included in BNF chapters 1 to 15. The majority of such items are dressings and appliances which NHS Prescription Services has classified into four pseudo BNF chapters (20 to 23).
BNF_PRESENTATION_NAME	BNF Presentation Description	string	The individual preparation name of the drug, which may be proprietary or generic, followed by strength and form.
FEMALE_AGE_BAND	Age Band	string	Indicates the age band for identifiable patients. If a patient's age has not been able to be verified, the age band will be indicated as unknown.
IDENTIFIED_PATIENT_COUNT	Identified Patient Count	number	A count of identified patients whose NHS Number was recorded during prescription processing, where each patient is counted once per row in which they appear, regardless of the number of prescriptions matching these criteria.
ITEMS	Items	number	Items shows the number of times a product appears on a prescription form not the quantity prescribed.
TOTAL_QUANTITY	Total Quantity	number	Total quantity is the number of items multiplied by the quantity prescribed. e.g. 2 items prescribed, one with a quantity of 2 and one with a quantity of 3, the total quantity would show as 5 (1 item x quantity of 2) + (1 item x quantity of 3