Thank you for your request for information as outlined below: Following the receipt of my FOI 27622 I would like to request the following additional information:

Can I now have the same date for the year 2020 with regards FOI27622_2021_Patient_Counts: Can I also have the data split by Contractor group Dispensing Appliance Contractor, Pharmacy and Dispensing Doctor contractors.

I would also like the full information provided for Patient Counts 2020 and 2021 and the new patients 2020 and 2021 for Incontinence Sheaths Part IX segment 2230 as per the attached, again split between Dispensing Appliance Contractor, Pharmacy and Dispensing Doctors contractors.

Your request was received on 28th November 2022 and has been dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

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.

Time Period

Answers are based on January 2020 to December 2021 data For first prescribing data is taken from all data held in the data warehouse, the first prescribing in the data warehouse for the described BNF sections with an identified patient is April 2015. Patients may have had prescribing prior to this but the data is not available prior to this point.

Drugs

Part one of the request is limited to the following BNF sections:

2102 Catheters

Based on the data provided by the requestor, catheters are classified into one of three categories: Intermittent, Indwelling or Unclassified (Unclassified meaning a catheter is present in BNF section 2012 but a classification has not been provided by the requestor)

Data is limited to prescriptions where an NHS Number was captured during NHSBSA prescription processing, the following shows the percentages of prescriptions with an identified NHS Number per calendar year, for part one of the request:

2015 69.63

2016 93.29

2017 93.56

2018 93.74

2019 93.48

2020 94.22

2021 94.88

2022 94.94

Part two of the request is limited to the following BNF sections:

2230 Incontinence Sheaths

Based on the data which you provided, sheaths are classified into two categories: Classified meaning they are listed by the requester and unclassified meaning they are in BNF section 2230 but not listed by the requester.

Data is limited to prescriptions where an NHS Number was captured during NHSBSA prescription processing, the following shows the percentages of prescriptions with an identified NHS Number per calendar year, for part two of the request:

2015 70.82

2016 94.76

2017 95.23

2018 95.35

2019 95.43

2020 96.31

2021 96.65

2022 96.45

Organisation Data for EXPANDED data

Only items that were dispensed in the community in England have been included where the account type is English Appliance Contractor, English Dispensing Doctor or English Pharmacy. Note this is different to request 27622 so patient counts may differ.

Organisation Data for FOI27622_2020_Patient_counts

Only items that were dispensed in the community in England have been included.

Questions are answered in separated csv files as follows for part one of the request:

FOI27622_2020_Patient_counts

Total patients in 2020 for Catheters If a patient has used both types a sub total Total patients for indwelling catheter patients, intermittent patients and unclassified patients.

EXPANDED_FOI27622_2021_Patient_counts

For the 2021 calendar year; Total patients for Catheters split by account type. Patients may appear in more than one account type if they had dispensing from more than one account type. Patient counts with both indwelling and intermittent dispensed by the same account type Total patients for indwelling catheter patients, intermittent patients and unclassified patients split by account type. Note patients may appear in multiple catheter and account types.

EXPANDED_FOI27622_2020_Patient_counts

For the 2020 calendar year; Total patients for Catheters split by account type. Patients may appear in more than one account type if they had dispensing from more than one account type. Patient counts with both indwelling and intermittent dispensed by the same account type Total patients for indwelling catheter patients, intermittent patients and unclassified patients split by account type. Note patients may appear in multiple catheter and account types.

EXPANDED_FOI27622_2020_2021_New_Patients

Total New patients in 2020 and 2021 split by account type Indwelling¸ intermittent and unclassified new patients 2020 and 2021 split by account type.

And for part two of the request:

FOI29910_2021_Patient_Counts:

For the 2021 calendar year; Total patients for sheaths split by account type. Patients may appear in more than one account type if they had dispensing from more than one account type. Total patients for classified and unclassified patients split by account type. Note patients may appear in multiple catheter and account types.

FOI29910_2020_Patient_Counts:

For the 2020 calendar year; Total patients for sheaths split by account type. Patients may appear in more than one account type if they had dispensing from more than one account type. Total patients for classified and unclassified patients split by account type. Note patients may appear in multiple catheter and account types.

FOI29910_ _2020_2021_New_Patients:

Total New patients in 2020 and 2021 split by account type Classified and unclassified new patients 2020 and 2021 split by account type.

Within the limitations of the data described above (i.e. this is the first known prescribing after April 2015) the data has been given in two ways, either split by catheter classification or across all catheters.

For example, this means if a patient is counted in 'Indwelling' in 2021 they have had no prescribing in this classification (where their NHS number has been recorded on a prescription form) between April 2015 and December 2020 inclusive and do have prescribing in Indwelling in the 2021 calendar year. If the patient had no prescribing in any of the classifications (where their NHS number has been recorded on a prescription form) between April 2015 and December 2020 inclusive and do have prescribing in any of the classifications in the 2021 calendar year then they are counted in the Total New Patients data.

Note patients may be in more than one classification if they have prescribing in more than one. The total new patients data gives the unique patient count for patients in any of the classifications. The account type is calculated by either the patients first prescription in all catheters or within the classification by using the dispensed date, prescribed date then alphabetical account type as an arbitrary tie-breaker. When the dispensed or prescribed date is not known (not captured during NHSBSA processing) then the end of the processing month is used.

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 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.