Request

I’m writing from BBC East with an enquiry regarding antidepressant prescriptions for children.

I note that the Medicines Used in Mental Health key findings are set out here with further information on quarterly summary statistics found here.

Would it be possible to have access to data in which I could determine how many antidepressant prescriptions are issued each year for children in East of England and London ICBs, please?

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 11 April 2024.

On 7 May 2024, you clarified your response as follows:

For the following ICBs, the number of people aged 17 and under who have been prescribed any kind of antidepressant: • NHS Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes ICB • NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICB • NHS Hertfordshire and West Essex ICB • NHS Mid and South Essex ICB • NHS Norfolk and Waveney ICB • NHS Suffolk and North East Essex ICB • NHS Northamptonshire ICB • NHS Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West ICB

For the following financial years: • 2021/22 • 2022/23 • 2023/24 (if data is not yet available for this financial year, please backdate to 2020/21 instead)

Response

I can confirm that the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) holds the information you have requested and a copy of the information and notes explaining it is attached.

Please read the below notes to ensure correct understanding of the data.

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 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 and Social Care (DHSC) 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

Financial Years 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2023/24.

Organisation Data

The data is for prescriptions prescribed in England regardless of where they were dispensed in the community and broken down by eight integrated care boards (ICBs).

Data

This dataset is limited to the total number of unique patients, aged 17 and under, prescribed British National Formulary (BNF) section (0403) within the following ICBs:

NHS MID AND SOUTH ESSEX INTEGRATED CARE BOARD NHS BEDFORDSHIRE, LUTON AND MILTON KEYNES INTEGRATED CARE BOARD NHS SUFFOLK AND NORTH- EAST ESSEX INTEGRATED CARE BOARD NHS HERTFORDSHIRE AND WEST ESSEX INTEGRATED CARE BOARD NHS NORFOLK AND WAVENEY INTEGRATED CARE BOARD NHS NORTHAMPTONSHIRE INTEGRATED CARE BOARD NHS BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, OXFORDSHIRE AND BERKSHIRE WEST INTEGRATED CARE BOARD NHS CAMBRIDGESHIRE AND PETERBOROUGH INTEGRATED CARE BOARD

Age

This data is limited to patients who are aged 17 and under.

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 (NHS number) was only available for 99.46% of prescription items. The patient count figures are based on a distinct count of NHS number 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 months.