Request

The number of items of antibacterial drugs (BNF 5.1) prescribed in England broken down by prescriber (e.g. GP, community pharmacist, dentist) for each of the following five financial years: 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23

If possible, please could I also get the above information broken down by ICB?

Response

A copy of the information is attached.

NHSBSA

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

Financial Years 2018/2019, 2019/2020, 2020/2021, 2021/2022 and 2022/2023.

Organisation

The data is for England prescribing of Antibacterial drugs (BNF Section 5.1) broken down by ICBs including prescriber type.

Please note:

Within the dataset some financial years show data at Area this was the NHS organisation structure pre-April 2020 and practices which closed before April 2020 did not move across into the then new NHS organisational STP structure which is now the NHS ICB organisational structure.

A date with the letter 'C' in brackets - example (C 01-Apr-20) against an area indicates that this organisation is closed as of the date stated.

Unidentified Deputising Services / Unidentified Doctors relates to prescription forms which contained a prescriber code that could not be allocated to an ICB. For example, the prescriber code was invalid or illegible. This has been included for completeness of data.

Dental prescribing is only available at national level.

Data

England prescribing of Antibacterial drugs (BNF Section 5.1) broken down by ICBs and by Prescriber type.

Prescriber Type

Indicates the prescriber type recorded as prescribing the prescription. Unidentified Additional Prescriber refers to an unidentified prescription prescribed by either a pharmacist, optometrist, physiotherapist, paramedic, chiropodist/podiatrist, or radiographer. Dispensing only doctor – The GP can prescribe and also dispense prescription items to one or more of their patients. Prescribing only doctor – The GP can prescribe but cannot dispense prescription items to patients.

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