Thank you for your request for information about the following:

I am trying to find the data for patient prescriptions of Benzodiazepines for the past five years. I am also keen to get a gender breakdown for these figures. It is please possible to get the latest data you have available.

Your request was received on 29 April 2024 and has been dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

We asked for clarification with the below on 9 May 2024

I am writing to ask you to clarify your request. This is because we need further details from you in order to identify and locate the information. Therefore I would be grateful if you would clarify the following:

It first would be helpful to know which of the below 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.

We would also require clarification on what was meant by 'patient prescriptions'. Do you require items split by gender or a patient count split by gender for Benzodiazipine prescribing?

Finally, do you want the data aggregated by month for last 5 calendar years or financial years?

You responded to this with the following on 10 May 2024

Can I please have the data for medication prescribed in England and dispensed in England only? Ideally, I would like the data for medication prescribed in the UK and dispensed in the UK only but it doesn't sound like it is possible to obtain this from your previous email.

I would like the patient count split by gender for all Benzodiazipine prescribing i.e. this will be x number of Benzodiazipines were prescribed to women and x number of Benzodiazipines were prescribed to men.

I would like the data for the last 5 calendar years please. It would be great to have this aggregated by month but no worries if this isn't possible.

Response

A copy of the information is attached.

NHSBSA - 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.

Dataset – This dataset is limited to the following BNF Chemical Substances:

0401010R0 Nitrazepam, 0408020D0 Clonazepam, 0401010T0 Temazepam,0401010P0 Lormetazepam, 0408010F0 Clonazepam, 0401020K0 Diazepam, 0401020A0 Alprazolam, 0401020T0 Oxazepam,0401020P0 Lorazepam, 0401010N0 Loprazolam mesylate, 1501041T0 Midazolam hydrochloride, 0408020V0 Midazolam maleate, 0401010I0 Flunitrazepam, 0401020G0 Bromazepam, 0401010L0 Flurazepam hydrochloride, 0408020W0 Midazolam hydrochloride, 0401020E0 Chlordiazepoxide hydrochloride, 040801060 Clobazam

Time Period – Monthly 2019-2023

Organisation Data - The data is for items prescribed and dispensed in the community in England.

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

Gender - Patient gender has been reported using the latest patient gender information held by the NHSBSA Information Services 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. Gender is either: Male, Female, Not Known (where no information is held in relation to the patient’s gender) or Indeterminate (where information is held which does not confirm either Male or Female). 

Patient Identification: Where patient identifiable figures have been reported they are based on the information captured during the prescription processing activities. Please note, patient details cannot be captured from every prescription form and based on the criteria used for this analysis, patient information was captured for 96.86% of prescription items.

The patient count figures are based on a distinct count of NHS numbers as captured from the prescription image.

The figures for the number of identifiable patients should not be combined and reported at any other level than provided as this may result in the double counting of patients. For example, a single patient could appear in the results for multiple age bands, drug groupings and/or time periods.

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

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-01889

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.