Request

Hi, Please can you provide a comprehensive list of "BNF_PRESENTATION_CODE" and "GENERIC_BNF_EQUIVALENT_CODE".

H, Please can you provide a comprehensive list of "GENERIC_BNF_EQUIVALENT_CODE" and "BNF_CHEMICAL_SUBSTANCE".

Hi, Please can you provide a comprehensive list of "GENERIC_BNF_EQUIVALENT_CODE" and "GENERIC_BNF_EQUIVALENT_NAME".

Response

A copy of the information is attached.

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

Data in ePACT2 is sourced from the NHSBSA Information Services 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

The request is based on ePACT2 latest prescription data month - August 2021

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

Please note for chapters 20-23 there are no BNF chemical substance codes as these are not populated for these chapters, instead this column is completed with the four character code which indicates the chapter and type of appliance as this is what is held in our system.

There are a limited number of BNF presentations which do not have a BNF generic equivalent presentation. These are known as stand alone class 3 products and are from our legacy drug database. Following the move to our new drug database no new entries would be coded in this way.