FOI-01163

##Request

I would like to request some data relating to the use of SABA inhalers, data on Catalyst Portal reports

No. patients prescribed 6 or more SABA inhalers in a 12 month period, who were also prescribed a preventer inhaler but not prescribed an antimuscarinic

Please can I request data at GP, PCN, SUB ICB level for 3 or more SABA inhalers 

You subsequently clarified your request with the following:

Please can I request 12 individual months of data for 2022 (Jan to Dec)
Please can I request data for all of England at the levels mentioned (ICB, Sub ICB, PCN, GP)
I would like to identify patients who have been prescribed 3+ inhalers over the course of the last 12 months (not 3 inhalers within the reporting month). I recognize with the nature of this rolling calculation, these data points could not be aggregated up to a yearly total due to the risk of double counting. 
I would like the methodology/outputs to replicate that used for the 6+ SABA metric published on the NHS BSA Catalyst portal 

##Response


Data Source
NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse

Time Period
January 2022 to December 2022 inclusive; each data points reflects prescribing in the 12 months to the reporting period. 

Contents
The data shows the total number of unique patients at each reporting level, who: were prescribed 3 or more SABA inhalers (see below) in a practice / cost centre under the organisational unit shown in the 12 months to the reporting month (the column "Numerator patient count"); and those prescribed a preventer but not an antimuscarinic, in the same practice in which the numerator is measured, in the same 12-month period (the column "Denominator patient count").

Organisational structures
The data is shown for items prescribed in GP practices and cost centres in sub ICB locations (SICBLs) in England, and dispensed anywhere within the community.

Medicines
In the numerator, data is shown for prescribing of short-acting beta-agonist (SABA) inhalers; in the denominator, data is shown for prescribing of preventer inhalers and antimuscarinic products.  A full list of medicines considered for inclusion can be found alongside the datasets, in the Excel spreadsheet.

Patient data
Data is shown for patients who could be identfied by means of a valid NHS number on the prescription form, and those for whom a valid age was captured on the form.  Prescribing for patients who do not meet this criteria has been excluded.  No personal identifiable data has been included in this release. Patient totals are calculated uniquely for each reporting period and organisational unit; patients may appear under more than one category, so patient totals must not be combined or double counting will occur.

Data coverage
For all prescription items issued during the reporting periods included in the data, 99.7% of items can be attributed to an identifiable patient.  For medicines included in this analysis, the rate is 99.8%.

Background
NHSBSA Prescription Services process prescriptions and information is then used to make payments to pharmacists and appliance contractors (in England) for prescriptions dispensed in primary care settings. This involves processing approximately 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.

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.

Please note that this request and our response is published on our Freedom of Information disclosure log at:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-01163 


Tags: INHALERS, NHS Prescriptions, SABA
Organization: Freedom of Information Disclosure Log