Request

I would like to make a new request under Freedom of Information with the same format, inclusions, groupings and caveats as a previous request you kindly dealt with for us. The previous request is 01204 and we would like the data to cover the period from April 2023 to the latest data month.

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 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

Monthly data from April 2023 to July 2023 inclusive.

Prescribing

The data provided is for prescriptions dispensed and prescribed in England.

Prescribing has been split by Sub ICB Locations (SICBLs) and limited to prescribing within SICBLs.

BNF Code

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).

Items

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

Total Quantity

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)

Net Ingredient Cost (NIC(£))

Net Ingredient cost (NIC) is the basic price of a drug as stated in Part II Clause 8 of the Drug Tariff but please note that where a price concession for items listed in Part VIII of the Drug Tariff has been agreed between the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee the NIC will reflect the concession price rather than the Drug Tariff price.

Gender

Patient gender has been reported using the latest patient gender information held by the NHSBSA Information Services data warehouse at the time that the data was extracted.

This uses information from either the most recent Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) message or from the last time that NHSBSA received data about the patient's gender from NHS Personal Demographics Service. Gender is displayed as Male, Female, Unknown or Unspecified.

Unknown means not recorded. Unspecified means recorded but not as either Male or Female. This could mean male, female, transitioning or transitioned, or non-binary, just that the data is unclear intentionally or not

Suppressions

Suppressions have been applied where items are lower than 5, for items and NIC and quantity for the following drugs and identified genders as per the sensitive drug list;

When the BNF Paragraph Code is 60401 (Female Sex Hormones & Their Modulators) and the gender identified on the prescription is Male

When the BNF Paragraph Code is 60402 (Male Sex Hormones And Antagonists) and the gender identified on the prescription is Female

When the BNF Paragraph Code is 70201 (Preparations For Vaginal/Vulval Changes) and the gender identified on the prescription is Male

When the BNF Paragraph Code is 70202 (Vaginal And Vulval Infections) and the gender identified on the prescription is Male

When the BNF Paragraph Code is 70301 (Combined Hormonal Contraceptives/Systems) and the gender identified on the prescription is Male

When the BNF Paragraph Code is 70302 (Progestogen-only Contraceptives) and the gender identified on the prescription is Male

When the BNF Paragraph Code is 80302 (Progestogens) and the gender identified on the prescription is Male

When the BNF Paragraph Code is 70405 (Drugs For Erectile Dysfunction) and the gender identified on the prescription is Female

When the BNF Paragraph Code is 70406 (Drugs For Premature Ejaculation) and the gender identified on the prescription is Female