FOI-02788

Thank you for your request for information about the following:

Request

You asked us:

Previously you provided me with a response to a Freedom of Information request [Ref: 24438] in relation to the prescribing of drugs for erectile dysfunction (BNF 7.4.5).

Could you provide me with a similar response this year? Specifically, could you state:

1.         For the 2024 calendar year please state how many prescriptions were issued for drugs of BNF 7.4.5 for erectile dysfunction? Please break these prescriptions down into age groups for the people they were prescribed to in the following age brackets (i) 0-9, (ii) 10-19, (iii) 20-29, (iv) 30-39, (v) 40-49, (vi) 50-59, (vii) 60-69, (viii) 70-79, (ix) 80-89 and (x) 90 and above. 

2.         For the 2024 calendar year please state how many individual patients received a prescription for drugs of BNF 7.4.5 for erectile dysfunction? Please break these individuals down into age groups for the people they were prescribed to in the following age brackets (i) 0-9, (ii) 10-19, (iii) 20-29, (iv) 30-39, (v) 40-49, (vi) 50-59, (vii) 60-69, (viii) 70-79, (ix) 80-89 and (x) 90 and above. 

3.         Also please state the age of the oldest person prescribed a medication from that category (BNF 7.4.5) in 2024?

4.         In relation to the drugs prescribed in 2024 could you please state how many prescriptions, and the cost was for each of the chemicals within section 7.4.5.?

5.         In relation to the 2024 calendar year please state for each CCG:

(i) how many prescriptions under 7.4.5 were made,

(ii) the cost of these prescriptions,

(iii) the total number of patients in that CCG that were provided with a prescription for this type of drug at any time during the year, and

(iv) the total number of male patients in this CCG.


The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 25 April 2025. 

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 and notes explaining it 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.

Data Source	

The data source was 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	

January 2024 to December 2024
 
Drugs

Limited to drugs prescribed in the BNF Paragraph 070405 - Drugs for erectile dysfunction.  Please note that the BNF paragraph does not guarantee the clinical indication.
 
Organisation Data	

Prescribing is limited to prescribing in GP practices in English SICBLs only.

Prescribing for query 3 has been split at Sub-integrated care board level (SICBL), formerly Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs).
 
Identified patients/patient counts

For Part 2 and Part 5 patients have been counted only if their NHS number was captured during NHSBSA processing.  The patient's NHS number may not be captured if, for example, it was not known at the time of writing the prescription, or it was hand-written on a paper prescription and the OCR scanners were unable to read it.  This does not affect the item counts - all items are included for unidentified patients.

A patient may appear in more than one count, for example multiple SICBL if they have prescribing in multiple SICBLs, or multiple age groups.  Therefore, you must not aggregate patient counts or present them in any way other than in these data sets. 
 
Patient age

Patient age is taken as the age captured from the form at the time of processing.  Patients may appear in more than one age band so you must not aggregate patient counts or present them in any way other than in these data sets.

Publishing this response

Please note that this information will be published on our Freedom of Information disclosure log at:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-02788 

Your personal details will be removed from the published response.

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.

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