Volume and Cost of Prescribing

1. Number of Items Declared by Pharmacy Contractors in England

At the end of each calendar month, pharmacy contractors are required to submit the prescriptions they have dispensed in that month to the Prescription Pricing Division accompanied by a submission document detailing the number of prescription items in the account that month. 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.

Because this information is available in advance of the account being processed it can provide a useful indicator of trends in prescription volume prior to the actual processing data becoming available.

The chart shows the number of items declared each month.

At the end of each month following the PPD processing the prescriptions received from contractors, information is transferred to the PPDs information systems. One of these systems; ePACT.net, provides information about prescribing in general practice in England. ePACT.net includes all items prescribed by GPs, nurse prescribers, pharmacist prescribers and other health professionals* that have been dispensed by pharmacy contractors, appliance contractors or dispensing doctors.

The charts show ePACT.net 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.

In the year to March 2008 prescription volume has increased by 5.4% per annum, to 793 million items. The main increases in volume have been for drugs used to treat the cardio vascular system (+6.3% growth, +14.9 million items) however; drugs to treat the endocrine system have seen the greatest increase in growth (+7.2% growth, +4.6 million items). Of the 14.9 million increase in items prescribed to treat the cardiovascular system, 6.0 million items can be attributed to the prescribing of simvastatin.

Net ingredient cost increased by 0.6% per annum to £8,097 million in the year to March 2008. The largest therapeutic area in terms of cost is cardiovascular system (£1,736 million), however cost in this area decreased by 7.9% per annum in the year to March 2008. The area showing the greatest decrease in cost is the gastro-intestinal system which has decreased by 10.7%, the majority of this can be attributed to the reduction in pack prices of some proton pump inhibitors.

More detailed information on prescription volume and cost, and factors affecting growth can be found on this website - click on the link below.

Prescription Volume & Cost Reports