Request

"1. Will NHSBSA please provide annual figures (April 2017 to March 2022) for the total number of repeat prescriptions issued in England via the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) for items on the list below? If available, can the annual totals be subset (by percentage) for ages: up to five, five -18 and over 18 years issued: a) in the community, b) in hospital? 2. What percentage of total NHS prescriptions issued in England have utilised the EPS annually from April 2017 to March 2022? 3. Will NHSBSA please provide annual figures (April 2017 to March 2022) for the total number of repeat prescriptions issued in paper format in England for items on the list below? If possible, can the annual totals then be subset (by percentage) for ages: up to five, five -18 and over 18 years issued: a) in the community, b) in hospital? 4. Would NHSBSA please provide annual figures (from April 2017 to March 2022) for the total numbers of patients on NHS repeat prescriptions dispensed in England subset for ages: up to five, five -18 and over 18 years: a) in the community, b) in hospital for all named items on the list below? 5. Would NHSBSA please provide the total number of patients dispensed repeat prescriptions for betamethasone valerate a) for three consecutive years b) four consecutive years c) five or more consecutive years from April 2017 to March 2022? 6. Can NHSBSA confirm that there is no requirement for private prescription dispensing data to be collated nationally in England for any of the items listed below and any generic equivalents? The information requested relates to the eight topical corticosteroids extracted from the NICE/BNF list (2022). Moderate • Betnovate-RD • Eumovate Potent • Beclometasone dipropionate 0.025% • Betamethasone valerate 0.1% • Betnovate • Elocon • Hydrocortisone butyrate Very potent • Dermovate • Nerisone Forte Source medicines extracted from: https://bnf.nice.org.uk/treatment-summaries/topical-corticosteroids/ Last accessed 27th June 2022.

[On 20 September 2022 you clarified your request as follows]

Thank you for your email dated 26 July 2022 and for the additional Excel sheets you provided. In the context of your requests for further clarification and the additional information provided, please find my revised FoI attached. I hope the revised questions are clear and that I have met the criteria for responding within the two months specified. I also hope that drawing out the data I have requested will not be too time consuming for the NHSBSA."

On 11 December 2022, you advised the following:

‘I am trying to establish the prevalence of specific topical corticosteroids dispensed in the community with repeat prescribing flags over a five-year period (2017-2022) in NHS England. I would prefer to wait until January 2023 (or later) for a response so that 2021-2022 data can be included.”

Response

2022 Data

I am writing to advise you that following a search of our paper and electronic records, I have established that the information you requested is not held by the NHS Business Services Authority. The latest yearly data we hold is 2021. Unfortunately, the FOIA does not allow for requests to be placed on hold. Please resubmit your request in February 2023 to request 2022 years data.

Please note that this response will be published on our Freedom of Information disclosure log at:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-26556