Thank you for your request for information about the following:

Please could I get the following information:

The number of people who have been prescribed montelukast (BNF code 0303020G0), broken down by the age brackets of under 5 years old, 5-10 years old, 11-15 years old, 16-18 years old, and over 18 years old, for the following financial years: 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24

The number of people who have been prescribed a steroid inhaler (for example, an inhaler containing beclometasone or fluticasone), broken down by the age brackets of under 5 years old, 5-10 years old, 11-15 years old, 16-18 years old, and over 18 years old, for the following financial years: 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24

Your request was received on 7 May 2024 and has been dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

We then requested clarification for this request on 22 May 2024 with the below:

Please can you let us know a specific list of what you class as steroid inhalers.

Alternatively we can provide all of BNF 030200 which is Corticosteroids (respiratory) where the two examples you state are included but this also includes lots of presentations that are not named as inhalers. For example there are refills in here as well as powder capsules, unit dose vials, cartridges etc. etc. Some of these will be taken with an inhaler but are not an inhaler as such.

Please let us know how you would prefer the data.

You responded to this on 22 May 2024 with the following:

With this in mind, please may I just have the figures for montelukast prescribing.

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 chemical substance of Montelukast (BNF 0303020G0)

Time Period

Financial Years 2019-2020, 2020-2021, 2021-2022, 2022-2023, 2023-2024

Organisation Data

The data relates to items prescribed in England and dispensed in the community.

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 99.67% 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 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-01913

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.