Request

Please can you provide the following information:
• The different types of contraceptive patch the NHS prescribes and their individual cost upon purchase.
• The cost of prescription, including appointment.

Response

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.

Data on the prices used for reimbursement of English dispensing in the community can be found in the Drug Tariff. https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/pharmacies-gp-practices-and-appliance-contractors/drug-tariff

To use the document, click on the link above and scroll to the link on the page titled “View the January 2024 Drug Tariff online”. Once in the file, use the search function on the left-hand side to search for ‘contraceptive’. Click on the link(s) that appear, and you will be able to see a breakdown of the products available and the cost in pence to the NHS.

Data on prescribing volumes and costs for English dispensing in the community can be found in the published Prescription Cost Analysis statistics (PCA), this data is classified against what is considered to be the 'main' therapeutic use for the pharmaceutical 'presentation' expressed using the (pseudo) British National Formulary (BNF) hierarchy. The tables include a breakdown with each pharmaceutical presentation reported separately. https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/prescription-cost-analysis-england

To use the document, click on the link above and scroll to the “Resource List”. From here you can choose to view the data on a national scale or narrowed down to local ICB level. Once in the file, we recommend downloading the file in order to filter the columns for ease of access. We recommend using the National Summary Tables and viewing Table 6: BNF presentation level data. Within this file you can filter by name in column C or the measurement in column D. We recommend that you access this data knowing the names of the medication, devices or patches you require.

Please be aware of the PCA methodology which may be relevant depending on interpretation. https://nhsbsa-opendata.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/pca/pca_background_info_methodology_v001.html

The basis of the cost information included in the PCA data is described in the 'metadata' section included with the release and relates to the amount included in the reimbursement.

NHSBSA prescription data only covers prescription items that have been submitted for reimbursement by community NHS dispensing contractors - this does not include any direct purchases made by other parts of the NHS (for example hospitals or other facilities that are operated by NHS Trusts).

The NHS Business Services Authority does not hold data - including cost information - about appointments.