Thank you for your request for information about the following:

Request

‘I would like to request the number of Pharmacy First consultations for each of the 7 pathways aggregated over: month, ICB and 5 year age bands [i.e. 0-4, 5-9, 10-14 etc.].

Data to cover the months from Feb 2024 to August 2024.

The data will be used to analyse the age distribution of people accessing Pharmacy First.’

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request 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.

Data Source

NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse

Time Period

The data includes Pharmacy First assessment records processed between February 2024 and August 2024. Please note that assessment submission is subject to a three-month grace period, so assessments may be processed in a later period to that in which they were carried out.

Contents

The data shows, for each month, the total number of pharmacy assessments carried by each of the 42 ICBs in England, broken down by Clinical Pathway and by the 5-year age band of the patient receiving treatment. Age bands are based on the age captured on the assessment record at the point of treatment. ICBs are derived from the community pharmacy that carried out the consultation.

Disclosure Control

Low patient counts can be derived from the assessment totals provided in this data. Because of the potentially sensitive nature of the services involved, statistical disclosure control has been applied, with assessment counts of between 1 and 4 redacted and replaced with an asterisk (*). Such values should be taken as 'less than five assessments'. Values of five or greater are shown unredacted.

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.