FOI-01662

Thank you for your request for information about the following: I would like to request some specific information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 on prescription activity within a therapeutic area I am currently investigating. I believe this information is held by yourselves at the NHS Business Services Authority as part of the recording of reimbursement activity, but the specific information I am seeking is not available from the data published on your site. I am looking to ascertain the number of monthly prescription items, cost and quantity of each medicine included in list A (below), that are being prescribed to patients who are not also in receipt of any of the medicines from the group defined in list B (also below). Please could I have this information for the latest available reporting month, and 23 previous months, to enable me to look at the past two-years of prescriptions. This information at a national (England) level would be most useful. Secondly, I would also like the information at ICB level if this is practical within resource constraints. My desired output in either xlsx or csv format, would be: Date / BNFID (from list A) / Items to patients not getting anything from list B / "NIC" to patients not getting anything from list B / Quantity to patients not getting anything from list B / Location (England, or ICB code) Nov-23 / 0601023ABAAAAAA / 123 / £456 / 234 / England Nov-23 / 0601023AIBBAAAA / 345 / £678 / 901 / England List A: __medicines with the following BNFID prefixes 0601023AB*, 0601023AI*, 0601023AQ*, 0601023AS*, 0601023AW*, 0601023AZ*, 0601023Y0*, ie:__ 0601023ABAAAAAA 0601023ABBBAAAA 0601023ABBCAAAA 0601023AIAAAAAA 0601023AIAAABAB 0601023AIAAACAC 0601023AIBBAAAA 0601023AIBBABAB 0601023AIBBACAC 0601023AQAAAAAA 0601023AQAAABAB 0601023AQAAACAC 0601023AQAAADAD 0601023AQBBAAAA 0601023AQBBABAB 0601023AQBBACAC 0601023AQBBADAD 0601023ASAAAAAA 0601023ASAAABAB 0601023ASBBAAAA 0601023ASBBABAB 0601023AWAAAAAA 0601023AWAAABAB 0601023AWAAACAC 0601023AWAAADAD 0601023AWAAAEAE 0601023AWAAAFAF 0601023AWAAAGAG 0601023AWAAAHAH 0601023AWAAAIAI 0601023AWBBAAAA 0601023AWBBABAB 0601023AWBBACAC 0601023AWBCAAAD 0601023AWBCABAE 0601023AWBCACAF 0601023AWBDAAAB 0601023AWBDABAG 0601023AWBDACAH 0601023AWBDADAI 0601023AWBDAEAJ 0601023AZAAAAAA 0601023AZAAABAB 0601023Y0AAAAAA 0601023Y0AAABAB 0601023Y0AAACAC 0601023Y0AAADAD 0601023Y0AAAEAE 0601023Y0BBAAAA 0601023Y0BBABAB 0601023Y0BCAAAC 0601023Y0BCABAD 0601023Y0BCACAE List B: __List B - medicines with any of the following BNFID prefixes: Note___ 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 Your request was received on 17th January 2024 and has been dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. ##Response A copy of the information is attached. 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. ###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. ###Data Source The data source was the NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse. ###Time Period December 2021 to November 2023 inclusive ###Organisation Data The data provided is for prescriptions prescribed in England. ###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. ###Patients Data is limited to prescriptions from patients with prescribing from Drug Group A, with no prescribing from Drug Group B, in the same month and Integrated Care Board (ICB). This is consistent across both organisational data outputs. ###BNF Code The BNF Code is a 15 digit code in which the first seven digits are allocated according to the categories in the BNF and the last 8 digits represent the medicinal product, form, strength and the link to the generic equivalent product. NHS Prescription Services has created pseudo BNF chapters, which are not published, for items not included in BNF chapters 1 to 15. The majority of such items are dressings and appliances which NHS Prescription Services has classified into four pseudo BNF chapters (20 to 23). ###Items Items shows the number of times a product appears on a prescription form not the quantity prescribed. ###Total Quantity The total quantity for a presentation i.e. each specific reimbursed quantity of a drug or appliance multiplied by the number of items, accumulated. ###Net Ingredient Cost (NIC(£)) Net Ingredient cost (NIC) is the basic price of a drug as stated in Part II Clause 8 of the Drug Tariff but please note that where a price concession for items listed in Part VIII of the Drug Tariff has been agreed between the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee the NIC will reflect the concession price rather than the Drug Tariff price. NIC is given in Pounds Stirling. ##Data Queries If you have any queries regarding the data provided, or if you plan on publishing the data, please contact [email protected] 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 [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: “NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse, 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.