Request

How much Midazolam was prescribed for the years 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022? How much Midazolam was prescribed in those years for the age groups 50-60, 61-70, 71-80, 81-90.

Date range: 01/01/2019 – 01/01/2023

Your request was received on 10 November 2023 and has been dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

On 14 November 2023 you clarified the following:

• Please could you confirm what you mean by ‘how much Midazolam’? Is this the number of prescription items or the total quantity?

• There are 3 forms of Midazolam - Midazolam Maleate, Midazolam Hydrochloride and Midazolam Hydrochloride. Are all three BNF chemical substances required?

Could you please provide information for both malate and hydrochloride forms of midazolam and also the total quantity?

• The chemical substances can be aggregated or separate for items. Which is required?

Separate items please.

Response

A copy of the information is attached.

Prescribing in England of BNF Chemical Substances of Midazolam maleate (BNF 0408020V0) and Midazolam hydrochloride (BNF 0408020W0 and BNF 1501041T0) at presentation level split by requested age bands.

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:

Calendar years of 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Organisation Data:

The data is for items prescribed in England regardless of where dispensed in the community.

Data:

This dataset is limited to the prescribing of presentations within the BNF Chemical Substances of Midazolam maleate (BNF 0408020V0), Midazolam hydrochloride (BNF 0408020W0), Midazolam hydrochloride (BNF 1501041T0). The data is broken down by specified age bands requested by the requester.

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. Many of such items are dressings and appliances which NHS Prescription Services has classified into four pseudo BNF chapters (20 to 23).

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)

NHSBSA would not normally accumulate total quantities of products as it is not recommended for different formulations of products to be accumulated at quantity level.

Patient Age

Patient ages are based on the age as captured from the prescription image and relates to the patient's age at the time of prescribing/dispensing. Results have been restricted to show results for patients by age band 50-60, 61-70, 71-80, 81-90. Not all patient’s age can be captured and these along with all other ages are included in the ‘Others’ group to provide yearly totals. Please note it is possible that a single patient may be included in the results for more than one age band where a patient has received prescribing at different ages during a calendar year.

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

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-01540