Thank you for your request for information about the following: 

The number of patients who have been prescribed opioid analgesics nationally for:

o All three months between January 2022 and March 2022
o All six months between October 2021 and March 2022
o All nine months between July 2021 and March 2022 o All 12 months between April 2021 and March 2022 o All 24 months between April 2020 and March 2022 • The number of patients who have been prescribed opioid analgesics nationally for:
o All three months between January 2021 and March 2021
o All six months between October 2020 and March 2021
o All nine months between July 2020 and March 2021 o All 12 months between April 2020 and March 2021 o All 24 months between April 2019 and March 2021 The number of patients who have been prescribed opioid analgesics nationally for:
o All three months between January 2020 and March 2020
o All six months between October 2019 and March 2020
o All nine months between July 2019 and March 2020 o All 12 months between April 2019 and March 2020 o All 24 months between April 2018 and March 2020 The number of patients who have been prescribed opioid analgesics nationally for:
o All three months between January 2019 and March 2019 o All six months between October 2018 and March 2019
o All nine months between July 2018 and March 2019 o All 12 months between April 2018 and March 2019 o All 24 months between April 2017 and March 2019 The number of patients who have been prescribed opioid analgesics broken down by ICB for:
o All three months between January 2023 and March 2023
o All six months between October 2022 and March 2023
o All nine months between July 2022 and March 2023 o All 12 months between April 2022 and March 2023 o All 24 months between April 2021 and March 2023 The number of patients who have been prescribed opioid analgesics broken down by ICB for:
o All three months between January 2022 and March 2022
o All six months between October 2021 and March 2022
o All nine months between July 2021 and March 2022 o All 12 months between April 2021 and March 2022 o All 24 months between April 2020 and March 2022 The number of patients who have been prescribed opioid analgesics broken down by ICB for:
o All three months between January 2021 and March 2021
o All six months between October 2020 and March 2021
o All nine months between July 2020 and March 2021 o All 12 months between April 2020 and March 2021 o All 24 months between April 2019 and March 2021 The number of patients who have been prescribed opioid analgesics broken down by ICB for:
o All three months between January 2020 and March 2020
o All six months between October 2019 and March 2020
o All nine months between July 2019 and March 2020 o All 12 months between April 2019 and March 2020 o All 24 months between April 2018 and March 2020 The number of patients who have been prescribed opioid analgesics broken down by ICB for:
o All three months between January 2019 and March 2019 o All six months between October 2018 and March 2019
o All nine months between July 2018 and March 2019 o All 12 months between April 2018 and March 2019 o All 24 months between April 2017 and March 2019

Your request was received on 21st July and has been dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. 

Response

A copy of the information is attached. 

Data Source

NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse

Contents
Data on prescribing of drugs in BNF Paragraph 040702 Opioid analgesics or BNF sub-paragraph 1501043 Opioid Analgesics

Time Period

Data covers the period April 2017 to March 2023.

Organisation Level

The data is shown for prescribing in England, organised by ICB. National data is also included, using the pseudo ICB code 'ENG' and ICB Name 'ENGLAND'

Patient counts: Patients have been counted if they have been prescribed for the required consecutive months' within the listed ICB. Patients who could not be identified by means of a valid NHS number on the prescription are excluded. The figures for the number of identifiable patients should not be combined and reported at any other level than provided as this may result in the double-counting of patients. A patient NHS number could be associated with 97.29% of all items in this data set

Drugs

All drugs in BNF Paragraph 040702 Opioid analgesics or BNF sub-paragraph 1501043 Opioid Analgesics.

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.

Exclusions

The data excludes items dispensed in prisons, hospital and private prescriptions but does include dental, prison and hospital prescriptions which are dispensed in the community. If a prescription was issued, but not presented for dispensing or was not submitted to NHSBSA Prescription Services by the dispenser, then it is not included in the data provided.  Please note that this request and our response is published on our Freedom of Information disclosure log at: 

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-01329

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:  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.