Thank you for your request for information about the following:

I would like to request the number of unique identifiable patients who have been prescribed certain types of melatonin AND who have also been prescribed certain types of ADHD medication in the same calendar month, broken down by 5 specific age brackets.

I would like to request the following information:

Part 1: Information on melatonin prescribing in patients who are also pharmacologically treated for ADHD. Time period requested: 2016 to 2022 (whole calendar years), and last 5 calendar years (monthly). Reporting level requested: National (England). Please indicate which sources have been included - include FP10H (“hospital-initiated”) data if possible, but if not practical then FP10 will suffice. Values requested: Counts of unique identifiable patients Patient age brackets: 2-5, 6-10, 11-17, 18-54, 55+ Format requested: .csv or .xlsx please

Part 2: An investigation of other treatments received by melatonin patients.

I would like to request a unique count of patients in each of the months of 2022 (Jan-22 to Dec-22) who have received both a medicine from the Subject medicine groups A to C and a prescription for a product in any other BNF subparagraph within the same month, broken down by BNF subparagraph. I understand that these counts will contain duplication where a patient has received prescriptions for products from several other BNF subparagraphs within the same month; the counts are not intended to be summed.

Your request was received on 20th February 2023 and has been dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Response

A copy of the information is attached.

Fewer Than 5 Patients

Please be aware that I have decided not to release the practice details where the total number of items falls below 5 - marked with an asterisk * in the data. This is because the patients could be identified, when combined with other information that may be in the public domain or reasonably available.

This information falls under the exemption in section 40 subsections 2 and 3A (a) of the Freedom of Information Act.

This is because it would breach the first data protection principle as:

a) it is not fair to disclose patients personal details to the world and is likely to cause damage or distress.

b) these details are not of sufficient interest to the public to warrant an intrusion into the privacy of the patients.

Please click the below web link to see the exemption in full.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/40

Breach of Patient confidentiality

Please note that the identification of patients is also a breach of the common law duty of confidence. A patient who has been identified could make a claim against the NHSBSA or yourself for the disclosure of the confidential information.

The information requested is therefore being withheld as it falls under the exemption in section 41(1) ‘Information provided in confidence’ of the Freedom of Information Act.

Please click the below web link to see the exemption in full.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/41

Data Source

NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse

Contents

Data on co-prescribing of drug groups as supplied by the requestor (Part 1), and by drug group as supplied and BNF sub-paragraph (Part 2).

Time Period

For Part 1, the data covers the period January 2016 to December 2022 and is displayed by month and by calendar year, separately; for part 2, the data covers the period January 2022 - December 2022 and is displayed by month.

Organisation Level

The data is shown for prescribing in England, in any setting, where dispensed in the community.

Age Bands

The data is shown for age bands based upon patient age as captured from the prescription form during processing.

Patient counts

Patients who could not be identified by means of a valid NHS number on the prescription, or who have no age or an age of under 2 recorded on the prescription, are excluded. The figures for the number of identifiable patients should not be combined and reported at any other level than provided as this may result in the double-counting of patients.

Please note a small proportion of prescribing for melatonin 5mg capsules has been processed as unspecified presentations, from September 2020 data onwards, which may have a minimal impact on the number of patients recorded against Subject Medicine Group B in the data.

Background

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.

The data excludes items dispensed in prisons, hospital and private prescriptions but does include dental, prison and hospital prescriptions which are dispensed in the community.

If a prescription was issued, but not presented for dispensing or was not submitted to NHSBSA Prescription Services by the dispenser, then it is not included in the data provided.

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 Copyright 2023” 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.