Request

‘I am looking to map the dispensing by Appliance contractors by CCG or ICS and I understand you do not hold this information, you do have where the Appliance Contractor is located and i have accessed this data from you site.

You do have the postcode of the prescriber who raised the prescription and the Dispensing Appliance Contractor who submitted it as well as the detail of the line items on the prescription both in volume and name of product by Sku (Line item). I understand the confidentiality concerns and I am only looking for the data at CCG or even ICS level not at postcode level but this would need to be mapped from postcode to CCG or ICS which I could do but with an agreement that the postcode level data is not used and is deleted once the mapping exercise has been done.

My request would be the following:

1. If I sent you a mapping of postcode to CCG could you do the exercise fro me or
2. We have an agreement inn place that I would delete the postcode data once the exercise has been done.

The data I would like included would be: 1. Number of packs dispensed 2. Contractor Total NIC by month, Individual sku’s dispensed by month with description, code and value (NIC) for each contractor code.

On 31 May 2022 you clarified the following: Can you provide me the following:

Monthly data for the period April 2020 to March 2022 Practice code Dispenser code (As attached) BNF Code or product code
Total NIC value]’

On 20 June 2022 you further clarified as follows:

‘Yes, rather than Product code I mean Product order number at product level and pack level where available.

I do not require number of packs dispensed just the total NIC by product order code or pack level code.

Response

A copy of the information 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.

Please note drugs flagged in our database as Schedule 2 and 3 controlled drugs have been excluded from this dataset for information security reasons to prevent the identification of organisations with high levels of controlled drug dispensing.

Time Period

April 2020 to March 2022

The data is split into two separate csvs by financial year

PRACTICE CODE

No limits are placed on prescribing practice. The symbol (-) is used for dummy practices (for example unidentified doctors or Scottish doctors)

DISPENSER_CODE Dispenser codes are limited to the following; FA133 ,FA696 ,FAA96 ,FAH84 ,FAV47 ,FC714 ,FC850 ,FC879 ,FCE87 ,FCH11 ,FCY62 ,FD135 ,FDA28 ,FDC49 ,FDR75 ,FE401 ,FE807 ,FEC67 ,FEW49,FF468 ,FFF14 ,FFY66 ,FFY68 ,FG020 ,FGD92 ,FGR26 ,FGW36,FH261 ,FH272 ,FH421 ,FH767 ,FH804 ,FHC99 ,FHE90 ,FHT00 ,FHY81 ,FJ469 ,FJ708 ,FJE85 ,FJF97 ,FJH75 ,FJM24 ,FJM43 ,FJM85 ,FJN80 ,FJT66 ,FJV34 ,FK593 ,FKM09 ,FKV20 ,FL755 ,FLD15 ,FLD64 ,FLE21 ,FLE95 ,FLJ41 ,FLV51 ,FM982 ,FMD74 ,FMG28,FMK11 ,FMV40 ,FMV84 ,FMY99 ,FND22 ,FNE35 ,FNE89 ,FNJ81 ,FPC27 ,FPE43 ,FPM97 ,FPP28 ,FPP56 ,FPW87,FQ588 ,FQ608 ,FQT79 ,FR040 ,FR158 ,FR739 ,FRF82 ,FRQ51 ,FRX15 ,FT468 ,FT553 ,FTD28 ,FTL51 ,FTM68 ,FTQ92 ,FTR18 ,FV104 ,FV224 ,FVQ58 ,FVT91 ,FVW18,FW285 ,FWC51,FWE39,FWL22 ,FWN04 ,FWN89,FWP06,FWP87,FXF12 ,FXF13 ,FXG29 ,FXN29 ,FXW55,FXW61,FYL81 and FYR20

These are the codes supplied as part of your request

BNF CODE

The 11 characters at the beginning of a BNF code which specifies a Product (generic or branded) but not its strength or formulation.

PRODUCT_ORDER_NUMBER and PACK_ORDER_NUMBER

If this is not held in our database then it will be blank.

NIC_GBP

The cost of the supplied item(s) calculated from the reimbursement price held on the NHSBSA master database. Given in Pounds Sterling.

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.