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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