FOI-03911

Request   You asked us:   Part 1 :   For each month, per A medicine (see list below), per ICB and nationally:   How many A medicine scripts went to people not getting any B drug in this or the previous 11 months     Part 2   In order to understand what "B" medicine (see list below) patients only receiving an "A" medicine in the current month were previously taking, I would like to know the following:     Of the A scripts that went to people not getting B in the current month, but who DID have a B script in the previous 11 months: what were the number of B scripts in each of those previous months, for each "A" BNFID.    The "B" scripts could be aggregated to BNF_CHEMICAL_SUBSTANCE or reported at BNFID level if easier.     I am requesting this at national level for each month.     I understand that these results will not be able to be summed and that the information on Drug B for people getting more than one "A" medicine in the month will feature twice.     Part 3   I would like to know the number of unique patients getting more than one medicine from List A in May25.     Part 4   I would also like to know the unique patient count for each row in part 2, at national level     Part 5   If possible, I would also like parts 2 and 4 at ICB level.     List A:    medicines with the following BNFID prefixes  0601023AB*, 0601023AI*, 0601023AQ*, 0601023AS*, 0601023AW*, 0601023AZ*, 0601023Y0*   List B:   medicines with any of the following BNFID prefixes   0601011   7-digit   0601012   7-digit   0601021   7-digit   0601022   7-digit   0601040   7-digit   0601023B   8-digit   0601023I   8-digit   0601023R   8-digit   0601023S   8-digit   0601023U   8-digit   0601023V   8-digit   0601023W   8-digit   0601023X   8-digit   0601023Z   8-digit   0601023A0   9-digit   0601023AA   9-digit   0601023AC   9-digit   0601023AD   9-digit   0601023AE   9-digit   0601023AF   9-digit   0601023AG   9-digit   0601023AH   9-digit   0601023AJ   9-digit   0601023AK   9-digit   0601023AL   9-digit   0601023AM   9-digit   0601023AN   9-digit   0601023AP   9-digit   0601023AR   9-digit   0601023AU   9-digit   0601023AV   9-digit   0601023AX   9-digit   0601023AY   9-digit   The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 19 June 2026.     We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000.   Our response   I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds the information you have requested, and a copy has been published on our Freedom of Information disclosure log.   Due to the large size of the files we cannot email these to you.   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.   Time Period   A drug data was limited to April 2024 - April 2026.    B drug data includes the 11 months before the A drug month, covering May 2023 to April 2026.    Organisation Data   The data provided is for prescriptions prescribed in England, using the ICB structure as it was in April 2026.   Drugs Drug group A is limited to drugs with the following BNF prefixes:    0601023AB*, 0601023AI*, 0601023AQ*, 0601023AS*, 0601023AW*, 0601023AZ*, 0601023Y0*    Drug group B is limited to drugs with the following BNF prefixes: 0601011*, 0601012*, 0601021*, 0601022*, 0601040*, 0601023B*, 0601023I*, 0601023R*, 0601023S*, 0601023U*, 0601023V*, 0601023W*, 0601023X*, 0601023Z*, 0601023A0*, 0601023AA*, 0601023AC*, 0601023AD*, 0601023AE*, 0601023AF*, 0601023AG*, 0601023AH*, 0601023AJ*, 0601023AK*, 0601023AL*, 0601023AM*, 0601023AN*, 0601023AP*, 0601023AR*, 0601023AU*, 0601023AV*, 0601023AX*, 0601023AY*   Identified Patients Prescriptions are only included if an NHS number has been captured during NHSBSA processing. Where patient identifiable figures have been reported, they are based on the information captured during the prescription processing activities.   Please note  patient details cannot be captured from every prescription form.Based on the criteria used for this analysis, patient information (NHS number) was available for 99.31% of A drug prescription items and 99.63% of B drug prescription items.   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 notsubmittedto NHS Prescription Services by    FOI output is in the following files:    FOI03911_Part_1_England.csv - 1,300 rows of data    FOI03911_Part_1_ICB.csv - 29,783 rows of data    FOI03911_Part_2_and_4.csv - 659,571 rows of data    FOI03911_Part_3.csv - 25 rows of data    FOI03911_PART_5202404001.csv - 111,510 rows of data FOI03911_PART_5202405001.csv - 116,099 rows of data FOI03911_PART_5202406001.csv - 131,311 rows of data FOI03911_PART_5202407001.csv - 132,039 rows of data FOI03911_PART_5202408001.csv - 136,676 rows of data FOI03911_PART_5202409001.csv - 142,122 rows of data FOI03911_PART_5202410001.csv - 143,182 rows of data FOI03911_PART_5202411001.csv - 150,623 rows of data FOI03911_PART_5202412001.csv - 145,485 rows of data FOI03911_PART_5202501001.csv - 151,400 rows of data FOI03911_PART_5202502001.csv - 162,146 rows of data FOI03911_PART_5202503001.csv - 161,382 rows of data FOI03911_PART_5202504001.csv - 164,709 rows of data FOI03911_PART_5202505001.csv - 165,505 rows of data FOI03911_PART_5202506001.csv - 173,376 rows of data FOI03911_PART_5202507001.csv - 171,914 rows of data FOI03911_PART_5202508001.csv - 172,768 rows of data FOI03911_PART_5202509001.csv - 180,250 rows of data FOI03911_PART_5202510001.csv - 176,083 rows of data FOI03911_PART_5202511001.csv - 184,529 rows of data FOI03911_PART_5202512001.csv - 177,686 rows of data FOI03911_PART_5202601001.csv - 185,522 rows of data FOI03911_PART_5202602001.csv - 192,120 rows of data FOI03911_PART_5202603001.csv - 185,116 rows of data FOI03911_PART_5202604001.csv - 186,881 rows of data   Part 1 caveats.   Patient data is limited to prescriptions from patients with prescribing from Drug Group A, with no prescribing from Drug Group B in the same month or the 11 previous months. This is consistent across both organisational data outputs.   Part 2 and 4 caveats   Part 2 and 4 are for data at a national (England) level.    Patient data is limited to prescriptions from patients with prescribing from Drug Group A, with no prescribing from Drug Group B in the same month but having prescribing from drug group B in the 11 previous months.    A prefix of A in the column heading indicates the data in this column is linked to the drug list A.    A prefix of B in the column heading indicates the data in this column is linked to the drug list B.    The data should be viewed only for specific A drug presentations and months.   For example, limiting to    A_YEAR_MONTH = 202408 and A_BNF_PRESENTATION_CODE = 0601023AQAAADAD will give you all the B drugs received, the 11 B months they were received in with item and patient counts for all patients receiving the selected A drug in the A month.    As a patient could receive multiple A drugs in multiple months, the B drug data is repeated for every combination of A drug and A month.    The data should not be aggregated as this will result in double counting of both items and patients.    Part 3 caveats   Part 3 is at a national (England) level.    Patient data is limited to patients who received prescribing of more than one BNF presentation from drug group A in the same month.    Part 5 caveats   Part 5 data is presented with the prescribing organisation (ICB).   Patient data is limited to prescriptions from patients with prescribing from Drug Group A, with no prescribing from Drug Group B in the same month but having prescribing from drug group B in the 11 previous months.    A prefix of A in the column heading indicates the data in this column is linked to the drug list A. A prefix of B in the column heading indicates the data in this column is linked to the drug list B.    The data should be viewed only for specific A drug presentations, months and ICBs. For example limiting to A_YEAR_MONTH = 202410, A_BNF_PRESENTATION_CODE = 0601023AQAAADAD and A_ICB_NAME = QHL will give you all the B drugs received, the 11 B months they were received in with item and patient counts for all patients receiving the selected A drug in the A month and A ICB.    As a patient could receive multiple A drugs in multiple months and from different ICBs, the B drug data is repeated for every combination of A drug, A month and A ICB. The data should not be aggregated as this will result in double counting of both items and patients.   Data Queries   Please contact  [email protected]  ensuring you quote the above reference if you have any specific questions regarding this response; or, if you feel you may be misunderstanding or misinterpreting the information; or, if you plan on publishing the data.   Reusing the data and copyright   If you plan on producing a press or broadcast story based upon the data please contact  [email protected] . 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:  “Data Warehouse, NHSBSA Copyright 2026”.  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.