Request

Under the freedom of information act 2000 I’m requesting the following information as described on page 9 of NHS BSA’s Requirements and Guidance for Endorsement in the EPS:

1) Please can you provide a breakdown of the number of prescription items that each pharmacy endorsed with the code “ND” in each month between 1 March 2018 and 1 March 2023?

a. For each item endorsed with the code “ND”, please can you provide any relevant codes used to indicate the reason for this endorsement?

2) Please can you provide a breakdown of the number of prescription items that each pharmacy gave an item status code of “0002” (not dispensed) in each month between 1 March 2018 and 1 March 2023?

a. For each item with a status code of “0002”, please can you provide any relevant codes used to indicate the reason for this status?

For clarity, if the data is available, it could be presented in this way, for example:

Reason codes used

ODS code Month_Year Items with status code 0002 (or endorsed ‘ND’) 0001 0011 0003 0002 0010 0009 0008 0005 0004 0007 0006 FWL51 032018 5 1 2 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0

Response

A copy of the information is attached.

Not dispensed items either from paper or EPS listed by Pharmacy Contractor Code per month.

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: ePACT2

Data in ePACT2 is sourced from the NHSBSA Data Warehouse and is derived from products prescribed on prescriptions and dispensed in the Community. The data captured from prescription processing is used to calculate reimbursement and remuneration. It includes items prescribed in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Guernsey / Alderney, Jersey and Isle of Man which have been dispensed in the community in England. English prescribing that has been dispensed in Wales, Scotland, Guernsey / Alderney, Jersey and Isle of Man is also included.

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.

Time period:

Monthly March 2018 – February 2023 (latest data available).

Organisation Data:

The data provided is for English Pharmacy Accounts.

Data:

Number of items not dispensed either from paper prescriptions or EPS.

Items:

Items shows the number of times a product appears on a prescription form not the quantity prescribed.

Not Dispensed Items:

Within the current reimbursement and remuneration data capture process "Not Dispensed" items are captured to ensure no payment is made. However, NHS Prescription Services are reliant on dispensing contractors endorsing prescription forms in line with the Guide to Prescription Endorsement. This is published jointly by NHS Business Services Authority and the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) which can be found on our website at:

Endorsement guidance | NHSBSA

This guidance is, however, not always followed. 'Not Dispensed' information is presented in a variety of different ways which is not always clear. This can create difficulties during the data capture process, resulting in some 'Not Dispensed' information being missed.

We have provided the information we hold for "Not Dispensed" items using information captured during the reimbursement and remuneration data capture process.

The paper ND count will be based on where the pharmacy contractor has indicated via an endorsement that the prescription was not dispensed. The EPS ND count will be based on the extraction of a status code of "0002" within the submitted EPS message. We cannot provide the reason codes for EPS as we do not extract these codes from the EPS message.