Request

Following my FOI Request Final Response 23371 can you please provide me with the same information by individual contractor code by month for the period January 22-Mar 22: Contractor Total NIC by month Individual sku’s dispensed by month with description, code and value (NIC) for each contractor code.

Response

Stock Keeping Unit (SKU)

In the past we have not addressed your use of this term in our official responses to this repeated request, although we have discussed this in a clarification e-mail exchange. Please note that our data warehouse does not hold the SKU for dispensed products. Therefore, this information is not held.

Remaining Information

A copy of the information you have requested has been published on our website at

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-25508

In some cases, in Microsoft Excel, E is interpreted in text as scientific notation, for example 01E00 shown as 1.00E+00. Please see the following guidance in these circumstances:

• Open a new Excel

– go to Data – From Text

– select the csv file you require

– leave format as delimited

– next

– Comma

– next

– highlight the CCG column

– change to text

– highlight column with the odd formatting

– change to text

– finish

Time Period: January 2022 to March 2022 inclusive.

Data Source: NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse

Data Contents:

• Data shows products dispensed, by month and dispenser, from BNF chapters 20,21, 22 or 23. This has been limited to the specified dispensers, this list is available in the csv file named "FOI25508 Dispensers.csv".

• The Net Ingredient Cost is given in Pounds Sterling and is the total for the appliance (by SNOMED ID) for the dispenser in the specified month.

NHSBSA Prescription Services process prescriptions and information is then used to make payments to pharmacists and appliance contractors (in England) for prescriptions dispensed in primary care settings. This involves processing approximately 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 users.

For Information

PRODUCT ORDER NUMBER and PACK ORDER NUMBER: If this is not held in our database then it will be blank.

Data 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.

If you have any queries regarding the data provided, or if you plan on publishing the data, please contact nhsbsa.foirequests@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 Information Services Data Warehouse, 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.