Request

I would like you to send me the data that underpins your ePACT2 national medicines optimisation dashboard metrics. Specifically I would like a snapshot of data for each of the 11 metrics for the months of May and November in the following years: 2023, 2024, 2025. The intention of this request is to enable me to broadly track progress of performance against each metric by NHS organisations, both ICBs and trusts.

Response

I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds some of the information you have requested, and a copy is attached.

Please be aware that the datasets relate to eight primary care metrics only.

Please read the below notes to ensure correct understanding of the data.

The data provided should be reviewed alongside documentation available at the following link:

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/access-our-data-products/epact2/dashboards-and-specifications/national-medicines-optimisation-opportunities

Please note:

The time periods for the metrics are not consistent; some represent a single month of claim data, while others are summaries of three, four, or twelve-month periods.

The column “Prescriptions_data_release_year_month” indicates the last month of any reporting period.

The column “Metric Time Period” reflects the actual time when the contributing activity was claimed.

The latest primary care metrics data available at this time is September 2025. We have therefore provided you with May data for the 2025 year in line with your request. November 2025 data will be available at the end of January 2026.

For one of the measures, only 24 months of data are routinely stored. A separate extract has been performed to recreate the data for May 2023. This is included in the second data file: FOI03442_MO_ICB_POLY_EXTRA_202305.csv

Advice and Assistance

The data for the for additional three metrics is not data produced by the NHSBSA and is provided by NHS England. We would therefore advise you to contact them for this data as they are the appropriate authority for this information and can provide you with the necessary guidance to review them.

They can be contacted at:

NHS England

PO Box 16738

Redditch

B97 9PT

Telephone 0300 311 22 33

Email: england.contactus@nhs.net

https://www.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/foi/

One of the secondary care metrics is publicly available via the ‘Fingertips’ public health profiles. Within the Medicines Optimisation Opportunities dashboard, this metric is referred to as “IV antibiotic treatment days per admission.” In Fingertips, it is listed as: “Indicator: Intravenous antibiotic prescribing; DDDs per 1000 admissions by month and NHS Acute Trust.”

This data can be accessed here: https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/search/intravenous#page/4/gid/1/pat/159/par/K02000001/ati/15/are/E92000001/iid/93983/age/1/sex/4/cat/-1/ctp/-1/yrr/1/cid/4/tbm/1https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/search/intravenous#page/4/gid/1/pat/159/par/K02000001/ati/15/are/E92000001/iid/93983/age/1/sex/4/cat/-1/ctp/-1/yrr/1/cid/4/tbm/1

The full datasets by NHS Trust can be downloaded by selecting “Data View” then “Download.” The following link provides direct access to the download page, however this may bypass some useful documentation and context available on other pages:

https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/search/intravenous#page/9/gid/1/pat/15/par/E92000001/ati/118/are/RCF/iid/93983/age/1/sex/4/cat/-1/ctp/-1/yrr/1/cid/4/tbm/1/page-options/car-ao-0_car-do-0

The data provided there is at NHS Trust level. Trusts would need to be aggregated into Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) using the NHS Organisation Data Service hierarchy, which is available here: https://www.odsdatasearchandexport.nhs.uk/

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 2026”. 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.