Thank you for your request for information about the following:

Regarding Q2 [https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-01111] the number of identified patients for the year 2022/2023, I believe the answer to this is missing. You have included an age breakdown of this number as requested, but the total number was not there. In your email your said I can't add the numbers up as some people would be double counted. Any chance you can provide this number

Your request was received on 2nd June, and I am dealing with it under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Response

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

FINANCIAL YEAR: 2022/2023

IDENTIFIED PATIENTS: 2,554,408

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

Time Period

April 2022 - March 2023 presented as financial year.

Drugs

Limited to drugs prescribed in the following BNF Paragraphs: 060401 - female sex hormones and their modulators 070201 - preparations for vaginal and vulval changes
There is not one singular definition of HRT medications, and many other products may be used in the treatment of the menopause that are not included in this data. These medicines are classified by their primary therapeutic indication. However, it is possible that they can be prescribed for other reasons outside of this primary therapeutic indication. The clinical indication of a prescription is not captured by NHSBSA during processing, and therefore we cannot determine the reason that a prescription was issued.

Organisation Data

Prescribing is limited to prescribing in England, but no limits on dispensing.

Identified patients/patient counts

Patients have been counted only if their NHS number was captured during NHSBSA processing. The patient's NHS number may not be captured if, for example, it was not known at the time of writing the prescription, or it was hand-written on a paper prescription and the OCR scanners were unable to read it.
0.91% of all items prescribed in this data set were unable to be attributed to an NHS number. Aggregating patient counts will likely result in double counting of individuals. Therefore, you may not present these patient counts in any way other than is done so in these data sets.

Data Queries

If you have any queries regarding the data provided, or if you plan on publishing the data, please contact foidata@nhsbsa.nhs.uk ensuring you quote the above reference. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.

If you plan on producing a press or broadcast story based upon the data, please contact communicationsteam@nhsbsa.nhs.uk This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and is subject to NHSBSA copyright. This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence detailed at: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Should you wish to re-use the information you must include the following statement: “NHSBSA Copyright 2023” This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Failure to do so is a breach of the terms of the licence.

Information you receive which is not subject to NHSBSA Copyright continues to be protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information originated. Please obtain their permission before reproducing any third party (non NHSBSA Copyright) information.