Thank you for your request for information about the following:

Request

You asked us:

1) a monthly breakdown on EPS (Electronic Prescription Service) prescriptions, for each month I would like a count of items prescribed in that month, this should be broken down for those same prescriptions by PrescriptionTreatmentType (expected values https://data.developer.nhs.uk/dms/mim/6.3.01/Vocabulary/PrescriptionTreatmentType.htm) and a further breakdown by ItemStatus values (expected values https://data.developer.nhs.uk/dms/mim/6.3.01/Vocabulary/ItemStatus.htm) for each PrescriptionTreatmentType.

Ideally this data should cover the period 01/04/2018 to 31/03/2023 but in order to minimise any additional workload we would be happy to accept other time periods if you already have that data - e.g. annual totals by the same breakdown for the last five years.

If values are present in the fields that are not covered by the linked specifications these can be detailed as Blank (or “”) where no associated value, or “Other”.

A suggested return format would be:

| Month | PrescriptionTreatmentType | ItemStatus | ItemCount |

|--------|---------------------------|--------------------|-----------|

| 202204 | 0001 - Acute | 0001 - Dispensed | 100 |

| 202204 | 0001 - Acute | 0002 - Not Dispensed | 10 |

2) a monthly breakdown on paper prescriptions, for each month I would like item counts broken down with details of if the item was dispensed or not dispensed (or a more detailed level of status similar to ItemStatus above if you hold this).

This should cover the same period as above.

A suggested return format would be:

| Month | ItemStatus | ItemCount |

|--------|----------------|-----------|

| 202204 | Dispensed | 100 |

| 202204 | Not Dispensed | 10 |

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on Tuesday 13 August 2024.

We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000.

Our response

I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds the information you have requested. A copy of the information with notes explaining this is attached.

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

The NHSBSA 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 users.

Data Source

The data source was the NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse.

Exclusions

The data excludes:

• items 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

The data has been split monthly between April 2018 and March 2023

Organisation Data

The data provided is for prescriptions in England that dispensing contractors submitted to the NHSBSA for reimbursement and remuneration.

Items

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

“ITEM_DISPENSED” indicates whether the items were marked as ‘dispensed’ or ‘not dispensed’ in our database.

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-02153

Your personal details will be removed from the published response.

Data Queries

If you have any queries regarding the data provided, or if you plan on publishing, the data please contact foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk ensuring that you quote the above reference. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.

Reusing the data and copyright

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: “NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse, NHSBSA Copyright 2024” 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.