Volume and Cost of Prescribing

1. Number of Items Declared by Pharmacy Contractors in England

At the end of each calendar month, chemist contractors submit the prescriptions they have dispensed to the Prescription Pricing Division accompanied by a form showing the number of prescription items. A prescription item refers to a single item on a prescription form. If a prescription form includes three items it is counted as three prescription items. The declaration includes items from different groups of prescribers e.g. GPs, dentists, nurse prescribers as well as from hospital FP10(HP) forms.

The chart shows the number of items declared each month.

At the end of each month after the Prescription Pricing Division has processed the prescriptions received from contractors, information is transferred to the Prescription Pricing Division's information systems. One of these systems, Prescribing Information, provides information about prescribing in general practice in England. Prescribing Information includes all items prescribed by GPs, nurse prescribers and pharmacist prescribers that have been dispensed by pharmacy contractors, appliance contractors or dispensing doctors. It excludes prescriptions from other groups of prescribers. Prescribing Information also includes items that have been personally administered by GPs.

The charts show Prescribing Information data for the number of items prescribed in general practice and the net ingredient cost of these items. Net ingredient cost refers to the cost of the drug before discounts and does not include any dispensing costs or fees. It does not include any adjustment for income obtained where a prescription charge is paid at the time the prescription is dispensed or where the patient has purchased a pre-payment certificate.

Prescription volume has increased by 5.2% per annum, to 773 million items in the year to September 2007. The main increases in volume have been for drugs used for endocrine diseases (7.4% growth, 4.5 million items) and in the cardiovascular system (6.9% growth, 15.8 million items). Of the 15.8 million increase in items prescribed to treat the cardiovascular system, 7.0 million items can be attributed to the prescribing of simvastatin.

Net ingredient cost increased by 1.7% per annum (£8,156 million) in the year to September 2007. The largest therapeutic area in terms of cost is cardiovascular disease (£1,872million), however cost in this area decreased by 0.6% per annum in the year to September 2007. The area showing the greatest decrease in cost is the gastro-intestinal system which has decreased by 21.1%, the majority of this can be attributed to the reduction in pack prices of some proton pump inhibitors.

Repeat dispensing has substantially increased over the last year (5.8 million items: + 151.8%). However, it has rolled out at a slower rate than initially predicted with the proportion of repeat dispensing in the year to September 2007 still being less than 1% in 91 of 152 PCTs. Based upon projected activity, repeat dispensing will not significantly affect the cost to the drugs bill. It is expected that by March 2008 the annual cost of repeat dispensing will increase by £15.6 million, approximately 0.2% of the overall annual cost of prescribing.

More information on prescription volume and cost can be found on this website - click on the link below.

Prescription Volume & Cost Reports