Thank you for your request for information about the following: 

I would like to request some information under the Freedom of Information Act, relating to serious shortage protocols (SSPs).

Please can you provide the following information:

1) The number of active SSPs per month between:

a. 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020

b. 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2021

c. 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022

d. 1 January 2023 to 31 October 2023

2) The number of items dispensed by pharmacy contractors between:

a. 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020

b. 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2021

c. 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022

d. 1 January 2023 to 31 October 2023

3) Please can you supply details of the figures in point 1 including a breakdown of:

a. The name of each SSP issued e.g. Fluoxetine, Estradiol, Atorvastatin

b. The aggregate duration (number of days) each SSP was issued for

I would also be interested in any information held by your organisation regarding my request. I understand that I do not have to specify particular files or documents and that it is the department’s responsibility to provide the information that I require.

Your request was received on 6th November and I am dealing with it under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. 

Response

Question 1

Under Section 21 of the Act, we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible to you. You can find the information they are looking for, for active SSPs on our website at 

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/pharmacies-gp-practices-and-appliance-contractors/serious-shortage-protocols-ssps

Each SSP is listed with a start and end date. Expired SSPs are in the expired SSPs section you need to click on to expand.  

Question 2

Under Section 21 of the Act, we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible to you. You can find the monthly Prescription Cost Analysis (PCA) data on the open data portal at https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/theme/community_prescribing_dispensing

It includes a column DISPENSER_ACCOUNT_TYPE which can be filtered to English Pharmacy which will give you the rows for prescriptions dispensed in England in pharmacy contractors. You can then sum the ITEMS column to get the number of items dispensed.  You will need to do this for each month and sum the totals.  If you instead want to use the annual PCA stats from the same page in the open data portal, you should be aware that those figures are not broken down by dispenser account type so the figures would include all types of English dispensing contractor. 

Question 3

Under Section 21 of the Act, we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible to you. You can use the information held on our website at https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/pharmacies-gp-practices-and-appliance-contractors/serious-shortage-protocols-ssps

It includes the drug, start and end date and any supporting information for every SSP issued.

Please note that this request and our response is published on our Freedom of Information disclosure log at: 

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-01536

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.