Request

Under the freedom of information act 2000 I’m requesting the following information on:

The number of identified patients in England receiving NHS prescriptions for propranolol and equivalent brands, and the number of items dispensed for identified and non-identified patients, in each of the past ten calendar years (2015 to the latest data available), split by five-year age bands, as follows:

a. 00-04 b. 05-09 c. 10-14 d. 15-19 e. 20-24 f. 25-29 g. 30-34 h. 35-39 i. 40-44 j. 45-49 k. 50-54 l. 55-59 m. 60-64 n. 65-69 o. 70-74 p. 75-79 q. 80-84 r. 85-89 s. 90+

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.

Number of items prescribed to unique identified patients and non-identified patients from the BNF chemical substance Propranolol hydrochloride (BNF 0204000R0) or Propranolol hydrochloride with diuretic (0204000Q0)

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.

Time Period:

Calendar years from 2015 – present.

Please note- patient ages are only available from April 2015 within our data, so the calendar year 2015 only holds data for April-December. 2024 includes January-August (the latest data available).

Organisation Data:

The data is for items prescribed in England regardless of where dispensed in the community.

Data:

This dataset is limited to the prescribing of products within BNF chemical substances of Propranolol hydrochloride (BNF 0204000R0) and Propranolol hydrochloride with diuretic (BNF 0204000Q0) for all patients in the age bands of 0-4, 5-9, 10-14, 15-19, 20-24, 25-29, 30-34, 35-39, 40-44, 45-49, 50-54, 55-59, 60-64, 65-69, 70-74, 75-79, 80-84, 85-89 and 90+

Items:

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

Patient:

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 99.25% 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 calendar years and age bands.

Data Queries

Please contact foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk ensuring you quote the above reference if you have any specific questions regarding this response; or, if you feel you may be misunderstanding or misinterpreting the information; or, if you plan on publishing the data. 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: “ePACT2, 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.