Request

Please provide the number of men aged 18-24 who have been prescribed viagra/ sildenafil in the four calendar years (2019-2022) and up to November 2023.

Please break this down by calendar year.

Please also provide the number of repeat prescriptions (rather than single prescriptions) for all age groups in the past four calendar years and up to November 2023, broken down by calendar years.

Response

A copy of the information is attached. Please read the below notes to ensure correct understanding of the data.

Please be aware that I have decided not to release the full details where the total number of patients falls below five. This is because the patients could be identified, when combined with other information that may be in the public domain or reasonably available.

This information falls under the exemption in section 40 subsections 2 and 3 (a) of the Freedom of Information Act.

This is because it would breach the first data protection principle as:
a) it is not fair to disclose patients’ personal details to the world and is likely to cause damage or distress; b) these details are not of sufficient interest to the public to warrant an intrusion into the privacy of the patients.

Data Source: NHSBSA Data Warehouse.

Note that the NHSBSA only holds information on prescriptions that have been issued, dispensed and claimed for. NHSBSA do not hold information on prescriptions issued but not dispensed or not submitted to the NHSBSA by the dispenser.

Time Period: Data covers prescribing between January 2019 and September 2023 inclusive (latest data available).

Organisation: Data limited to prescriptions prescribed and dispensed in England.

Drugs: Data is shown for prescribing of medication with the following BNF Chemical Substances:

0205010Y0 Sildenafil (Vasodilator Antihypertensive) 0604012V0 Sildenafil (Female Sex Hormone) 0704050Z0 Sildenafil (Erectile Dysfunction)

Note that the BNF chemical substance is not a guarantee of indication.

No data relating to indication is collected.

Patient Counts: Data is restricted to prescription items where a valid patient NHS number was collected during processing. For context, a valid patient NHS number was collected for 99.3% of all prescription items for the above chemical substances, that were prescribed and dispensed in England in the time period.

Patient counts in Part 1 are unique to the calendar year and the chemical substance. For example, if a patient has multiple prescriptions in 2019 for Sildenafil (Erectile Dysfunction) then they will only be counted once. However, if they have prescriptions across multiple years or multiple chemical substances then that patient will be counted once in each year or once in each chemical substance. The total number of unique patients per year is provided as well.

Patient counts should not be aggregated or otherwise presented in any form other than as in this data set to avoid the risk of counting single patients multiple times.

Age: Part 1 is limited to patients whose age was recorded as between 18 and 24 (inclusive) during processing. Part 2 has no limitations on age.

Gender: Patient gender has been reported using the latest patient gender information held by the NHSBSA 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.

Part 1 and Part 2 have both been limited to patients whose gender is recorded as 'Male'.

Prescription Type: Part 2 is split by prescription type. These are: • 'Acute EPS'
• 'Repeat Prescribing EPS' • 'Repeat Dispensing EPS and Paper' • 'Unknown'

Repeat Dispensing allows a patient to obtain repeat supplies of NHS prescriptions without the need for their GP practice to issue a prescription each time a supply is required. The GP can authorise a prescription with a specified number of ‘issues;’ each issue contains the same prescribed items and allows the prescriber to authorise and issue a batch of repeat prescriptions for use up to 12 months. The figures for repeat dispensing cover paper prescriptions and EPS messages.

Repeat Prescribing is where the patient still needs to obtain an NHS prescription from their GP practice each time they require their medication or appliances, and data is only available via EPS messages. It requires the prescriber to select the appropriate treatment code indicating it is repeat prescribing and these figures should be used with caution.

Acute Prescribing is any EPS prescribing that is not flagged as either Repeat Prescribing or Repeat Dispensing.

Any paper prescriptions which are not Repeat Dispensing are listed as 'Unknown'.

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

NHSBSA Prescription Services process prescriptions and information is then used to make payments to pharmacists and appliance contractors (in England) for prescriptions dispensed in primary care settings. This involves processing approximately one 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 users.

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.