Thank you for your request for information about the following:

Request

‘I am requesting your assistance under the Freedom of Information Act and hope that this request is able to be fulfilled reasonably easily. I have noted a prior question and response provided on your disclosure log which are similar to the information I am seeking, and believe this new request is a fairly minor variation.

On detailed review, this response nearly provides the information I require, but not quite. Therefore, I would like to request under the Freedom of Information Act (2000) information similar to that provided in response to the request FOI-01662, but with a key difference in the criteria limiting the results.

The prior question pertains to the volumes of several medicinal products being prescribed to patients who are not in receipt of other nominated medicine groups.

The response to FOI-01662 states: "Data is limited to prescriptions from patients with prescribing from Drug Group A, with no prescribing from Drug Group B, in the same month and Integrated Care Board (ICB)."

I am requesting the same information but limited to prescriptions from patients with prescribing from Drug Group A, with no prescribing from Drug Group B, in the previous 12 months (in any ICB).

The only difference is extending the limitation from "no prescribing from Drug Group B in the same month and ICB" to "no prescribing from Drug Group B in the previous 12 months (in any ICB)".

If you could use the same drug groups as detailed in FOI-01662 and provide monthly data from January 2022 to the most recent available data month, I believe this will give me exactly the information I am looking for.

As per the request above, I am also requesting this information a) at England level and b) broken down by the patient's ICB (the ICB current in the month of the Drug Group A prescription).

To clarify with some worked examples in case useful:

Inclusions: If a patient has a prescription from Drug Group A, and no prescription for a drug in Group B in the previous twelve months, then this prescription for the Group A drug should be included in the results, against the patient's current ICB.

Exclusions: If, for example, in May 2024 a patient has a prescription from Drug Group A in North East London ICB, having also had a drug from Group B in January 2024 in North East London ICB, then this patient's prescription for a Group A drug should not be included in the results, as the patient had a prior prescription for a drug from Group B (in the same ICB).

Similarly, if, for example, in May 2024 a patient has a prescription from Drug Group A in North East London ICB, having also had a drug from Group B in January 2024 in North WEST London ICB, then this patient's prescription for a Group A drug should not be included in the results, as the patient had a prior prescription for a drug from Group B (albeit in a different ICB).’

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 23 September 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 and a copy of the information 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 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.

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 NHS Prescription Services by the dispenser.

Data Source

The data source was the NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse.

Time Period

January 2022 to July 2024 inclusive.

Organisation Data

The data provided is for prescriptions prescribed in England.

Drugs

Drug group A is limited to drugs with the following BNF prefixes 0601023AB, 0601023AI, 0601023AQ, 0601023AS, 0601023AW, 0601023AZ, 0601023Y0*

Drug group B is limited to drugs with the following BNF prefixes 0601011, 0601012, 0601021, 0601022, 0601040, 0601023B, 0601023I, 0601023R, 0601023S, 0601023U, 0601023V, 0601023W, 0601023X, 0601023Z, 0601023A0, 0601023AA, 0601023AC, 0601023AD, 0601023AE, 0601023AF, 0601023AG, 0601023AH, 0601023AJ, 0601023AK, 0601023AL, 0601023AM, 0601023AN, 0601023AP, 0601023AR, 0601023AU, 0601023AV, 0601023AX, 0601023AY*

Identified Patients

Prescriptions are only included if an NHS Number has been captured during NHSBSA processing.

Patients

Data is limited to prescriptions from patients with prescribing from Drug Group A, with no prescribing from Drug Group B in the same month or the 11 previous months. This is consistent across both organisational data outputs.

BNF Code

The BNF Code is a 15 digit code in which the first seven digits are allocated according to the categories in the BNF and the last 8 digits represent the medicinal product, form, strength and the link to the generic equivalent product. NHS Prescription Services has created pseudo BNF chapters, which are not published, for items not included in BNF chapters 1 to 15. The majority of such items are dressings and appliances which NHS Prescription Services has classified into four pseudo BNF chapters (20 to 23).

Items

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

Total Quantity

The total quantity for a presentation i.e. each specific reimbursed quantity of a drug or appliance multiplied by the number of items, accumulated.

Net Ingredient Cost (NIC(£))

Net Ingredient cost (NIC) is the basic price of a drug as stated in Part II Clause 8 of the Drug Tariff but please note that where a price concession for items listed in Part VIII of the Drug Tariff has been agreed between the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee the NIC will reflect the concession price rather than the Drug Tariff price. NIC is given in Pounds Sterling.

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.

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 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.