Request

The number of items prescribed of the following substances: cocaine, diamophine and dipipanone.

Dates requested: 01.01.2019 – 01.01.2023.

Response

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 totaling 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 or hospitals. • Items prescribed but not presented for dispensing or not submitted to NHS Prescription Services by the dispenser.

This dataset is limited to private prescribing in England.

Currently private prescriptions are only required to be submitted to the NHSBSA for schedule 2 and 3 controlled drugs for monitoring purposes.

Time Period: Dispensing months of January 2019 to January 2023 accumulated.

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

Data for the following BNF Chemical Substances:

Cocaine (eye) BNF 1107000F0 – no data for requested time period.

Cocaine hydrochloride BNF 1502010F0 – no data for the requested time period. Cocaine BNF 1502010G0 – no data for the requested time period.

Diamorphine hydrochloride BNF 0309010N0 – no data for the requested time period. Diamorphine hydrochloride (Systemic) BNF 0407020K0 - 75

Dipipanone hydrochloride BNF 0407020H0 - 48