Request

Can I please get the latest available data of Antimicrobial Stewardship Dashboard (Children) for financial years 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2023/24? We wish to receive it by sub ICB/CCG level. ASC01 Prescribing of antibacterial items per 1,000 children ASC02 Number of children prescribed antibiotics per 1,000 children ASC03 Number of children prescribed multiple antibiotics ASC04 Prescribing of specific antibiotics per 1,000 children ASC05 Prescribing of UTI related antibiotic items per 1,000 children

On 3 July you clarified the following:

Would you prefer the data for full financial-year periods, or broken down by month?

Broken down my month, please.

If broken down by month, do you want me to provide single-month totals for each month, or 12-month rolling totals up to and including each reporting month; if by full financial year, we will provide aggregated single-month totals across the 12-month periods in FY, rather than any rolling totals.

If possible, we would like both single-month and 12-month rolling totals. If you can provide it in one form, we would prefer single-month totals.

We are unable to provide data based on exact dates, but can provide data on medicines dispensed in the period April 2021 to March 2024, if that is acceptable?

That's perfect for us

Response

I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds the information you have requested, and a copy of the information is attached.

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

The data source is the NHSBSA information services data warehouse.

NHSBSA process prescriptions and information is then used to make payments to pharmacists and appliance contractors (in England) for prescriptions dispensed in primary care settings. This involves processing approximately 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 users.

Contents

This release contains data taken from the Antimicrobial Stewardship - Children dashboard in ePACT2. The data is contained in the spreadsheet accompanying these notes and is displayed in 10 worksheets - each dashboard indicator is shown for months and 12-monthly totals. Further information, and indicator definitions for the dashboard can be found by going to https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/access-our-data-products/epact2/dashboards-and-specifications/antimicrobial-stewardship-children-dashboard and following the link to "Antimicrobial Stewardship - Children specification (Word: 284KB)" at the foot of that page.

Time period

Data shown for dispensing between April 2021 and March 2024 inclusive. The data is presented by month. The data is shown for two separate time aggregations - monthly (single activity totals in the month shown) and 12-month rolling (with activity totals relating to the 12 months up to the reporting month shown).

Organisation data

The dashboard includes prescribing undertaken in GP practices and cost centres in sub ICB locations (formerly Clinical Commissioning Groups) in England only. Closed sub ICB locations (e.g. those which have become defunct following changes to organisation structures) are not included in the data.

Patient counts

Unique patient counts are shown for both numerator and denominator values, in line with the indicator definitions outlined in the specification document referenced above. Patient count totals should not be combined to avoid the risk of double counting.

Medicines

Please refer to the dashboard specification listed above for definitions of medicines included in the data.

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 NHSBSA by the dispenser

Publishing this response

Please note that this information will be published on our Freedom of Information disclosure log at:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-02019