A copy of the information is attached.

NHSBSA 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 users.

The time period covered is February 2018 through to October 2018 dispensed prescriptions (inclusive).

This information is derived from products prescribed on NHS prescriptions and dispensed in the community. The data retrieved from these prescriptions is processed to capture the Prescriber, drugs and drug costs before being summarised where applicable and then held on a database.

The data only includes items prescribed by a NHS Hospital Trust which have been dispensed in the community.

The data is based on what was prescribed by hospital prescribers within hospital trusts in England only. However it may include items prescribed in England which have been dispensed in England, Wales or Scotland.

Please note this means that if a prescription was issued, but not presented for dispensing or was not submitted to NHS Prescription Services by the dispenser, then it is not included in the data provided.

The data excludes items prescribed in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland which have been dispensed in England.

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. The 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 the NHS Prescription Services has classified into four pseudo BNF chapters (20 to 23).

The NUMBER OF ITEMS shows the number of times a product appears on a prescription form, not the quantity prescribed.
E.g. If a doctor prescribes 28 tablets of Paracetamol. The number of items would be 1.

The 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 VIIIA of the Drug Tariff has been agreed between the Department of Health and the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee the NIC will reflect the concession price rather than the Drug Tariff price.

The ACTUAL COST is the basic price of the drug less the National Average Discount Percentage (NADP) plus Payment for Consumables (previously known as container allowance), Out of Pocket Expenses and Payment for Containers (10p for splitting packs).

The QUANTITY shows the total quantity for the number of prescribed items.
E.g. If a doctor prescribes 28 tablets of Paracetamol. The quantity would be 28.


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 2019” 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.