Request

You asked us:

I am looking for some information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 around primary care prescriptions in England.

I believe the reimbursement data held by yourselves in ""epact2"" contains the information which is able to answer this request.

I would like to know to what extent unique patients are being prescribed, within the same month, 2 different strengths of the medicines listed in this request.

To this end, could I kindly request that you provide me with a report showing:

The total number of prescription items, and total quantity prescribed, for presentation A and presentation B where both have been prescribed to a unique identified patient in the same month, and the unique patient count which this combination applies to. I am attaching a file which details the medicines and combinations of interest, and the requested output fields which I hope will be helpful. The presentations ""A and B"" are given at virtual product level and should treat both branded and generic prescribing ie all BNFID codes listed as a group. If you could give me the numbers for December 2024 that would be most helpful.

As a second part of this request, if you are able to also provide the numbers for the months of October 2024 and November 2024, that would allow for a little more comparison.

You clarified your response as follows:

Presentations A and B are given at virtual product level and should treat both branded and generic prescribing as a group. Using the generic equivalent BNFID would be a neat solution (assuming that this will cover all the relevant prescribed BNFIDs). The detailed list of BNFIDs for each group was an attempt to be helfpul but can be ignored in this case!

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 21 March 2025.

We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000.

Our response

I can confirm that we hold the information you have requested and a copy of the information and notes explaining this is attached.

Please read the notes to ensure your 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 one billion prescription items and payments totalling over £9 billion each year.

Data Source

The data source is the NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse.

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.

Time Period

October 2024 to December 2024 inclusive.

Organisation Data

The data provided is for prescription items prescribed in England.

Limitations

Prescriptions are only included if an NHS Number has been captured during NHSBSA processing. 89.22% of prescription items on prescription forms within the limits of the dataset had an identified patient.

Data is limited to prescriptions for patients who have received a combination of Drug A and Drug B during the same month.

Drugs

Please see the 02648_DrugList.csv file for a full break down of the combinations that have been reported on. This file shows the generic equivalent presentation and the generic BNF code for each of the drugs used.

Data Queries

Please contact foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk 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 communicationsteam@nhsbsa.nhs.uk. 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 2025”. 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.