Thank you for your request for information about the following:

Request

‘Please can you provide an excel datasheet breaking down the number of patients who have received the below BNF codes.

0401010ADAAAIAI

0401010ADBGAAAI

0401010ADAABKBK

0401010ADBGABBK

0401010ADAACYCY

0401010ADBGACCY

0401010ADAACPCP

0401010ADBGADCP

0401010ADBGAEBL

0401010ADAABLBL

1. can the data be provided for Aug-23 to Jul-24

2. can the data be grouped by age bracket 0-9, 10-17, 18-29, 30-39, 40 and over

3. can the data be grouped by ICB location

4. if possible, can the data be grouped by gender

5. if patient numbers is not possible, then total items would suffice.’

[On 25 November 2024 you clarified your request as follows]

‘Please can you provide the information for 1 September 2023 to 31 August 2024.’

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 15 November 2024, with clarification received on 25 November 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.

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.

Time Period

Monthly data: September 2023 to August 2024.

Organisation Data

The data is for items prescribed in England (per ICB) regardless of where dispensed in the community.

Data

This dataset is limited to the prescribing of the following BNF presentations:

0401010ADAAAIAI, Melatonin 1mg tablets

0401010ADAABKBK, Melatonin 2mg tablets

0401010ADAABLBL, Melatonin 5mg tablets

0401010ADAACPCP, Melatonin 4mg tablets

0401010ADAACYCY, Melatonin 3mg tablets

0401010ADBGAAAI, Adaflex 1mg tablets

0401010ADBGABBK, Adaflex 2mg tablets

0401010ADBGACCY, Adaflex 3mg tablets

0401010ADBGADCP, Adaflex 4mg tablets

0401010ADBGAEBL, Adaflex 5mg tablets

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. Most of such items are dressings and appliances which NHS Prescription Services has classified into four pseudo BNF chapters (20 to 23).

Items

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

Patient information

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 99.57% of prescription items.

The patient count figures are based on a distinct count of NHS number as captured from the prescription image.

Patient ages are based on the age as captured from the prescription image and relates to the patient's age at the time of prescribing. Results have been restricted to only show results for all patients aged between 0-9, 10-17, 18-29 and 40 and over years of age.

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 months and age bands.

Gender

Patient gender has been reported using the latest patient gender information held by the NHSBSA Information Services data warehouse at the time that the data was extracted. This uses information from either the most recent Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) message or from the last time that NHSBSA received data about the patient's gender from NHS Personal Demographics Service.

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.