Thank you for your request for information about the following:

Request

You asked us:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-27622

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 4 September 2025.

We requested clarification on 16 September 2025:

Therefore I would be grateful if you would help with the below query.

The classifications of catheters that were provided for the previous FOI (FOI-27622) do not all match up to the classifications that are available in our drug database. Would you like us to use the classifications from FOI-027622 to keep the classifications consistent, or use the classifications that are available in our drug database? I have attached the a spreadsheet showing the difference.

You responded on 16 September 2025:

Please use the classifications available in the drug database.

We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

Our response

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

Data Source

The data source was the NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse.

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.

• Items supplied as part of a Pharmacy First consultation or service.

Time Period

Answers are based on January 2020 to December 2024 processing data, presented as calendar years.

For first prescribing data is taken from all data held in the data warehouse - the first prescribing in the data warehouse for the described BNF sections with an identified patient is April 2015.

Patients may have had prescribing prior to this but the data is not available prior to this point.

Patients may also have prescribing where the NHS number has not been captured, and so the prescription is not able to be attributed to the patient.

Data is limited to prescriptions where an NHS Number was captured during NHSBSA prescription processing, please find attached spreadsheet (titled FOI03156_CAVEATS) which shows the percentages of prescriptions with an identified NHS Number per calendar year.

Drugs

Limited to the following BNF sections;
2102 Catheters
2128 Anal Irrigation System

Catheters are classified into one of three categories based on the NHS BSA Common Drug Reference (CDR) drug database: Intermittent, Indwelling or Unclassified (Unclassified meaning a catheter is present in BNF section 2102 but a classification of Intermittent or Indwelling has not been provided). Note that this classification differs from FOI27622 as the classifications were then provided as part of the request. In this case, the CDR classifications were requested.

Organisation Data

Only items that were dispensed in the community in England have been included

Note patients may be in more than one catheter classification if they have prescribing in more than one. The Total patients data gives the unique patient count for patients in any of the catheter classifications

Within the limitations of the data described above (i.e. this is the first known prescribing after April 2015) the data for new patients with catheters has been given in two ways; either split by catheter classification or across all catheters.
For example, this means if a patient is counted as new for Indwelling' in 2021, they have had no prescribing in this classification (where their NHS number has been recorded on a prescription form) between April 2015 and December 2020 inclusive and do have prescribing in Indwelling in the 2021 calendar year. If the patient had no prescribing in any of the classifications (where their NHS number has been recorded on a prescription form) between April 2015 and December 2020 inclusive and do have prescribing in any of the classifications in the listed calendar year then they are counted in the Total New Patients data.

Note patients may be in more than one classification if they have prescribing in more than one. The total new patients data gives the unique patient count for patients in any of the classifications.

Figures for BNF Section 2128 are calculated separately to those for BNF section 2102.

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: “Data Warehouse, NHSBSA Copyright 2025”. 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.