Thank you for your request for information about the following:

I would like to request some specific information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 on prescription activity within a therapeutic area I am currently investigating. I believe this information is held by yourselves at the NHS Business Services Authority as part of the recording of reimbursement activity, but the specific information I am seeking is not available from the data published on your site.

I am looking to ascertain the number of monthly prescription items, cost and quantity of each medicine included in list A (below), that are being prescribed to patients who are not also in receipt of any of the medicines from the group defined in list B (also below).

Please could I have this information for the latest available reporting month, and 23 previous months, to enable me to look at the past two-years of prescriptions.

This information at a national (England) level would be most useful. Secondly, I would also like the information at ICB level if this is practical within resource constraints.

My desired output in either xlsx or csv format, would be:

Date / BNFID (from list A) / Items to patients not getting anything from list B / "NIC" to patients not getting anything from list B / Quantity to patients not getting anything from list B / Location (England, or ICB code)

Nov-23 / 0601023ABAAAAAA / 123 / £456 / 234 / England

Nov-23 / 0601023AIBBAAAA / 345 / £678 / 901 / England

List A:

medicines with the following BNFID prefixes 0601023AB, 0601023AI, 0601023AQ, 0601023AS, 0601023AW, 0601023AZ, 0601023Y0*, ie:

0601023ABAAAAAA
0601023ABBBAAAA
0601023ABBCAAAA
0601023AIAAAAAA
0601023AIAAABAB
0601023AIAAACAC
0601023AIBBAAAA
0601023AIBBABAB
0601023AIBBACAC
0601023AQAAAAAA
0601023AQAAABAB
0601023AQAAACAC
0601023AQAAADAD
0601023AQBBAAAA
0601023AQBBABAB
0601023AQBBACAC
0601023AQBBADAD
0601023ASAAAAAA
0601023ASAAABAB
0601023ASBBAAAA
0601023ASBBABAB
0601023AWAAAAAA
0601023AWAAABAB
0601023AWAAACAC
0601023AWAAADAD
0601023AWAAAEAE
0601023AWAAAFAF
0601023AWAAAGAG
0601023AWAAAHAH
0601023AWAAAIAI
0601023AWBBAAAA
0601023AWBBABAB
0601023AWBBACAC
0601023AWBCAAAD
0601023AWBCABAE
0601023AWBCACAF
0601023AWBDAAAB
0601023AWBDABAG
0601023AWBDACAH
0601023AWBDADAI
0601023AWBDAEAJ
0601023AZAAAAAA
0601023AZAAABAB
0601023Y0AAAAAA
0601023Y0AAABAB
0601023Y0AAACAC
0601023Y0AAADAD
0601023Y0AAAEAE
0601023Y0BBAAAA
0601023Y0BBABAB
0601023Y0BCAAAC
0601023Y0BCABAD
0601023Y0BCACAE

List B: List B - medicines with any of the following BNFID prefixes: Note_

0601011 7-digit
0601012 7-digit
0601021 7-digit
0601022 7-digit
0601040 7-digit
0601023B    8-digit
0601023I    8-digit
0601023R    8-digit
0601023S    8-digit
0601023U    8-digit
0601023V    8-digit
0601023W    8-digit
0601023X    8-digit
0601023Z    8-digit
0601023A0   9-digit
0601023AA   9-digit
0601023AC   9-digit
0601023AD   9-digit
0601023AE   9-digit
0601023AF   9-digit
0601023AG   9-digit
0601023AH   9-digit
0601023AJ   9-digit
0601023AK   9-digit
0601023AL   9-digit
0601023AM   9-digit
0601023AN   9-digit
0601023AP   9-digit
0601023AR   9-digit
0601023AU   9-digit
0601023AV   9-digit
0601023AX   9-digit
0601023AY   9-digit

Your request was received on 17th January 2024 and has been dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Response

A copy of the information is attached.

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.

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.

Data Source

The data source was the NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse.

Time Period

December 2021 to November 2023 inclusive

Organisation Data

The data provided is for prescriptions prescribed in England.

Drugs

Drug group A is limited to drugs with the following BNF prefixes 0601023AB, 0601023AI, 0601023AQ, 0601023AS, 0601023AW, 0601023AZ, 0601023Y0 Drug group B is limited to drugs with the following BNF prefixes 0601011, 0601012, 0601021, 0601022, 0601040, 0601023B, 0601023I, 0601023R, 0601023S, 0601023U, 0601023V, 0601023W, 0601023X, 0601023Z, 0601023A0, 0601023AA, 0601023AC, 0601023AD, 0601023AE, 0601023AF, 0601023AG, 0601023AH, 0601023AJ, 0601023AK, 0601023AL, 0601023AM, 0601023AN, 0601023AP, 0601023AR, 0601023AU, 0601023AV, 0601023AX, 0601023AY

Identified Patients

Prescriptions are only included if an NHS Number has been captured during NHSBSA processing.

Patients

Data is limited to prescriptions from patients with prescribing from Drug Group A, with no prescribing from Drug Group B, in the same month and Integrated Care Board (ICB). This is consistent across both organisational data outputs.

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

Items

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

Total Quantity

The total quantity for a presentation i.e. each specific reimbursed quantity of a drug or appliance multiplied by the number of items, accumulated.

Net Ingredient Cost (NIC(£))

Net Ingredient cost (NIC) is the basic price of a drug as stated in Part II Clause 8 of the Drug Tariff but please note that where a price concession for items listed in Part VIII of the Drug Tariff has been agreed between the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee the NIC will reflect the concession price rather than the Drug Tariff price. NIC is given in Pounds Stirling.

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 Information Services Data Warehouse, 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.