Request

Would it be possible to request, for the financial year 2023/2024 for pharmacies in England any data held on:

1.Whether overall dispensing item numbers include additional installment dispensing episodes

2.The total number of installment dispensing episodes for the financial year 2023/2024 (eg on FP10MDA forms or any other mechanism)

Response

Part 1

As this is not a request for recorded information this query will be handled separately. Please can you clarify what report your query is in relation to.

Part 2

I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds the information you have requested and a copy of the information and notes explaining it is attached.

In England, instalment prescribing by practices is only allowed on FP10MDA forms. We do not hold or collect information on other mechanisms.

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 in 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:

The financial year April 2023-March 2024

Organisation Data:

The data is for items prescribed in England and dispensed by English pharmacy and dispensing doctor contractors.

Data:

This dataset is limited to show the number of items prescribed on an FP10 MDA form type that can be dispensable by instalments and the number of prescription fees associated with instalment episodes.

Items:

Items show the number of times a product appears on prescription forms, not the quantity prescribed, and not the total number of instalment dispensing episodes on FP10 MDA forms.

Number of Fees

Shows the number of instalment prescription fees associated with the items prescribed on the FP10 MDA forms. Each instalment dispensing episode is represented as one instalment prescription fee.

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:

“Dental Services, NHSBSA Copyright 2025” This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

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.