Thank you for your request for information about the following:

For the month of October 2023 would it be possible to find out:

1) The total number of prescription items

2) The number of prescription items with a quantity of 7

3) The number of prescription items with a quantity of 14.

Your request was received on 18 April 2024 and has been dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

This was then clarified on 25 April 2024 with the following:

Please can you confirm which of the following options you would want to be included, in terms of where the items have been prescribed and dispensed?

• Prescribed anywhere in the UK, dispensed in England. We can indicate the prescribing country if required?

• Prescribed in England, dispensed anywhere in the UK. We can indicate the dispensing country if required?

• Prescribed in England and dispensed in England only.

To which you responded with the following on 25 April 2024

Would it be possible to have the data for

• Prescribed anywhere in the UK, dispensed in England. We can indicate the prescribing country if required? If possible to breakdown the prescribing country it would be very useful

Response

A copy of the information is attached.

Total Items prescribed in October 2023, and dispensed within England (Part 1)

Total Items prescribed with a Quantity of 7 and 14 in October 2023, and dispensed within England (Part 2)

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:

October 2023

Organisation Data:

The data is limited to prescriptions prescribed anywhere in the UK and dispensed in England. Prescribing Country indicates which country the item was prescribed in within the data.

Quantity:

Quantity normally shows the quantity of a product. However, where a product is packed in a 'special container' (see Drug Tariff Part II Clause 10) the pharmacist is not required to split the pack and may supply the number of containers or original packs which provide the quantity nearest to that prescribed. In some circumstances these items show quantity as the number of units supplied i.e. 1 or 2 even though a pack may contain 56 tablets.

Items:

Items shows the number of times a product appears on a prescription form not the quantity prescribed. Within part 2 of the data, items are aggregated by total item quantities prescribed of 7 and 14 units.

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)

This data is formatted to whole numbers.

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

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-01874

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:

“ePACT2, NHSBSA Copyright 2024” 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.