FOI-03567

Thank you for your request for information about the following:

Request

You asked us:

<i>I would like to request a dataset identifying patients who are new to products in BNF Chapter 23.

<b>Inclusion criteria</b><br>
•	Patients who have had an item from BNF Chapter 23 dispensed on prescribed date, but nothing before.

<b>Exclusion criteria</b><br>
•	Exclude any patients who have been prescribed one or more items from BNF Chapter 23 in the 12 full months prior to the month of the prescribed date

<b>Clarification example</b><br>
•	The data point for 01 December 2021 should include patients who had a BNF Chapter 23 item dispensed on that date, but exclude any patients who had a BNF Chapter 23 item dispensed at any point before 30 November 2021.</i>

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 29 January 2026. 

We requested clarification on 16 February 2026:

<i>1. Please can you confirm the date range of the information you would like?

2. Please can you confirm if you would like a monthly breakdown?

3. Dispensed on prescribed date - Dispensing and prescribed dates are only available via EPS. Would you like this to be limited to EPS (excluding any paper prescriptions) where the prescription was dispensed on the same date that it was prescribed?<br>
Please note that we aren’t sure how reliable that would be. Also providing this dataset by pres/disp date would be too granular and potentially disclosive. Our recommendation would be to use the processing year_month for this instead.

4. in the 12 full months prior to the month of the prescribed date - In the point above, Inclusion criteria, and below, Clarification example, ask for prior prescribing to include any time before the given date. Which would they like? 
 
Our recommendation would be a monthly breakdown of processing year_months in the date range you require. A count of unique patients who received a prescription (prescribed in England) for an item in Chapter 23, who had not been prescribed one in the previous 12 processing months.</i>

We received your response on 19 February 2026:

<i>Could this please be broken down for the last two calendar years (2024 and 2025)? A daily breakdown would be great if possible.
I confirm that limiting this to EPS prescriptions where the item was dispensed on the same date that it was prescribed is acceptable.</i>

We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000. 

##Our response

I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds the information you have requested and a copy of the information is attached.

Please read the below notes to ensure 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 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 and Social Care users.

<b>Data Source</b><br>
The data source was the NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse.
 
<b>Exclusions</b><br>
The Data excludes: <br>
•	Items not dispensed, disallowed and those returned to the contractor for further clarification. <br>
•	Prescriptions prescribed and dispensed in Prisons, Hospitals and Private prescriptions.<br>
•	Items prescribed but not presented for dispensing or not submitted to NHS Prescription Services by the dispenser.<br>
•	Items supplied under NHS pharmacy advanced services.
 
<b>Time Period</b><br>
January 2024 - December 2025, with dates shown at daily level where prescribing and dispensing of the item are recorded as occurring on the same day.
 
<b>Organisation Data</b><br>
The data provided is for prescriptions prescribed in England. Prescribing and dispensing dates are only recorded on prescriptions submitted via the Electronic Prescriptions Service (EPS), therefore, this dataset is limited to EPS only.
 
<b>Drugs</b><br>
Limited to items in BNF Chapter 23 - Stoma Appliances
 
<b>Patients</b><br>
Limited to patients who have received their first prescription for an item in Chapter 23 during the time period, or have not received an item in Chapter 23 during the full 12 months prior.
 
Limited to identified patients where an NHS Number was captured during NHSBSA prescription processing. 
 
For prescriptions processed between January 2024 and December 2025, 92.99% of prescriptions were submitted via EPS and had an NHS Number recorded.

##Data Queries

Please contact <a href="mailto: foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk"> foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk</a> 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 <a href="mailto: communicationsteam@nhsbsa.nhs.uk">communicationsteam@nhsbsa.nhs.uk</a>. 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 2026”. 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.

Tags: NHS Prescription Services
Organization: Freedom of Information Disclosure Log