Request

Please could you provide me with the following information:

1. The number of NHS England prescriptions for BNF section code: 3.1 by patient age for 2021 only using the ages 0 through to 16 inclusive.

2. The number of NHS England prescriptions for BNF section code: 3.2 by patient age for 2021 only using the ages 0 through to 16 inclusive.

3. Please provide me with a list which contains

(a) the number of patients aged 0-16 inclusive in each CCG who were given a prescription for BNF section 3.1 in 2021,

(b) the number of patients aged 0-16 inclusive in each CCG who were given a prescription for BNF section 3.2 in 2021, and

(c) the number of patients in each CCG who are aged 0-16 inclusive in 2021.’

On 6 April 2022 you clarified the following:

1. In relation to this point, when I mention 2021 in the question it refers to the 2021 calendar year (Jan-Dec).

2. In relation to 3(c) I am after the number of children aged 0-16 inclusive on the patient list of each CCG and NOT the number of children aged 0-16 inclusive who have had a prescription of any kind in the time period.

Response

A copy of the information is attached.

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 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 - January to December 2021 accumulated.

Organisation Data - The data provided is for prescriptions prescribed in England (part 1) / CCGs (part 2) regardless of where they are dispensed. A date with the letter 'C' in brackets - example (C 01-APR-21) against CCG Name indicates that this organisation is closed as of the date stated.

This dataset

Part 1 (Questions 1 & 2)

National data limited to the prescribing items for products in BNF Section 3.1 (Bronchodilators) and BNF Section 3.2 (Corticosteroids (respiratory)) for patients aged 0 to 16.

Items shows the number of times a product appears on a prescription form not the quantity prescribed.

Part 2 (Questions 3a & 3b)

CCG data limited to the prescribing items and the number of identifiable patients for products in BNF Section 3.1 (Bronchodilators) and 3.2 (Corticosteroids (respiratory)) for patients aged 0 to 16 inclusive.

Part 3 (Question 3c)

The list size for each CCG for patients aged 0-16

Patient Information

Where patient identifiable figures have been reported they are based on the information captured during the prescription processing activities. Please note, patient details cannot be captured from every prescription form.

Patient ages are based on the age as captured from the prescription image and relates to the patient's age at the time of prescribing/dispensing. Results have been restricted to only show results for patients aged 0 to 16 inclusive.

The figures for the number of identifiable patients should not be combined and reported at any other level than provided as this may result in the double-counting of patients. For example,

a single patient could appear in the results for multiple BNF Sections or CCGs.

Data Quality for Patient ages

NHSBSA stores information on the age of the recipient of each prescription as it was read by computer from images of paper prescriptions or as attached to messages sent through the electronic prescription system.

The NHSBSA does not validate, verify or manually check the resulting information as part of the routine prescription processing. However an additional check is carried out on a yearly basis to check the capture rate and accuracy of the stored patient information. The results of this check for the most recent time period available (January 2020 to December 2020) show that for both paper and electronic prescriptions patient age was captured from 94.88% of prescription forms and the accuracy of age data captured was 99.95%.

Please note that this request and our response is published on our Freedom of Information disclosure log at:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-24391

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.

If you plan on producing a press or broadcast story based upon the data please contact nhsbsa.communicationsteam@nhs.net. 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 2022” 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.