Thank you for your request for information about the following:

Im in the process of writing a review article on the association of chloramphenicol eye drops and ointment with aplastic anaemia under the supervision of Mr Malhotra.

Is there any way i can get data on how many topical chloramphenicol prescriptions were issued annually/ over the past 10-20 years or how many were purchased over the counter in the UK ?

Your request was received on 31st October 2022 and I am dealing with it under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Summary of Response

Sales of Over-the-Counter Drugs

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. We only hold information on drugs which were dispensed in the community, with a prescription.

Prescription information for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

I am writing to advise you that following a search of our paper and electronic records, I have established that the information you requested for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is not held by the NHS Business Services Authority. We only hold information for England. For details of other home countries please use the following contacts.

Information for Scotland can be obtained by contacting:

Customer Service Desk

NHS National Services Scotland

Gyle Square

1 South Gyle Crescent

Edinburgh

EH12 9EB

Tel: 0131 275 6665

Email: NSS.Communications@nhs.net

Website: www.isdscotland.org

Web form http://www.nhsnss.org/pages/corporate/foi_request_form.php

FOISA Disclosure log http://www.nhsnss.org/pages/publications/foi_disclosures.php

Information for Wales can be obtained by contacting:

NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership

Freedom of Information Requests

NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership,

4-5 Charnwood Court,

Heol Billingsley,

Parc Nantgarw,

Cardiff

CF15 7QZ

E-mail: shared.services@wales.nhs.uk

Information for Northern Ireland can be obtained by contacting:

Corporate Services Department

HSC Business Services Organisation

2 Franklin Street

Belfast

BT2 8DQ

Tel: 028 9032 4431

Website: http://www.hscbusiness.hscni.net/

Email: Foi.bso@hscni.net

FOI Disclosure log http://www.hscbusiness.hscni.net/information/2107.htm

Prescription information for England

2008 to March 2021

Under section 21 of the Act, we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible to you. The information you requested is available from the “PCA Monthly Drug Data” at the following web link:

http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/PrescriptionServices/3494.aspx

You will need to view all the rows containing product of interest to you by searching (press “Ctrl” and “F” keys together) Column D. You can then calculate the totals you require from this information.

Please be mindful of the notes provided at the above link, regarding changes to reporting methodology. This is particularly important when running comparisons across time periods where the methodology changed.

January 2021 Onwards

The above provides the legacy PCA data. Please visit the below web link to our Open Data Portal (ODP) which provides data for January 2021 onwards.

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/prescription-cost-analysis-pca-monthly-data