Important Update
We are making changes to the Secondary Care Medicines data (SCMD).
We currently publish Secondary Care Medicines Data in two locations on the Open Data Portal. We are consolidating this so that we will only provide version of the SCMD. The version that we will continue to publish is this version of SCMD with an indicative price metric. The dataset with indicative price is currently in the Experiment Area theme and we will be moving into the Hospital & Provider Medicines theme. The SCMD without indictive price will then be retired.
Secondly, the data we publish has been in a monthly provisional format. We hold a yearly and validated final version of this data in our data warehouse. We will be removing all of the provisional monthly files for previous years and will publish the yearly finalised file instead. For example, all 12 monthly files from 2020 will be removed and will be replaced with a consolidated yearly file for whole of 2020.
Provisional monthly files will continue to be published for the current year until the finalised yearly file is available.
In summary:
We will publish only one SCMD and it will be with indicative price included.
We will remove all provisional monthly files for previous years and publish the yearly finalised file instead.
We continue to publish provisional files for the current year until we receive the finalised yearly file.
Data Set Description
Secondary care medicines data (SCMD) contains processed pharmacy stock control data in Dictionary of Medicines and Devices (dm+d) standardised format from all NHS Acute, Teaching, Specialist, Mental Health and Community Trusts in England.
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) hosts and publishes Secondary Care Medicines Data on behalf NHS England and Improvement (NHSE&I).
This experimental data release includes an indicative cost of medicines supplied. this information is derived from current medicines pricing data held in NHSBSA data systems including the Common Drug Reference (CDR) database and dm+d calculated at VMP level.
You can provide feedback about this experimental release by emailing nhsi.hospitalmedsdata@nhs.net.
Interpreting the data
The indicative cost of medicines supplied in this data is based on the community pharmacy reimbursement prices for generic medicines and list prices for branded medicines. Care should be taken when interpreting and analysing this indicative cost as it does not reflect net actual cost (including discounts and rebates) paid by hospitals when purchasing medicines. The indicative cost in this data set will overestimate the total spend on medicines issued in hospitals. For example, the total indicative cost of medicines issued in secondary care for 2020 / 21 was £14.5 billion compared to the net actual cost of £7.59 billion (excluding central rebates).
Care should also be taken when estimating the growth of costs in secondary care medicines when using this data as discounts and rebates will affect rates of growth as well as level of spend.
Related data and statistics
Our Prescribing Costs in Hospitals and the Community official statistics publication also includes Secondary Care Medicines data with actual cost, broken down by British National Formulary (BNF) Section.
Guidance
Read more about this dataset, including the indicative cost:
Secondary Care Medicines Data - Guidance (PDF: 234KB)
ODS mapping document (Excel: 25KB)
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