User Manual Prescribing

Contents

Number of Prescriptions and Cost of Prescribing ICS, PCN and GP Practice with BNF Drilldown

Current Monthly Cost and Number of Prescriptions for Selected BNF Items (Excludes Appliances)

Current Monthly Cost and Number of Prescriptions for Selected BNF Items Appliances Only

Unit Costs of BNF Presentations Versus ICS Average with Cost Alignment Saving Opportunity

Pareto of Unit Cost Difference for the PCN Versus STP Average for Top 50 BNF Presentations by Current Month Total Spend

PCN Annual Opportunity by BNF Presentation (Top 50)

Annual Saving Opportunity by BNF Presentation (Top 50)

Prescribing Variation to ICS Average for Top Long Term conditions BNF drilldown and saving opportunity

PCN Cost per Patient for Selected BNF Items & Population

Monthly (3 month average) Practice Cost Per patient for selected BNF Items and Population Versus STP Average

Annualised Cost Difference from Per Patient Prescribing Variation to STP Average

Sources

NHSBSA
English Prescribing Data

Glossary Prescribing Costs and Quantities

Term	Meaning
Annual Saving Opportunity	Over the course of a year the value difference between the STP average and the purchasing price of an individual practice multiplied by purchasing quantities.
Annualised Cost Difference	This is generated by the difference between PCN average purchasing price compared to the STP average converted to a per patient number. This number is then multiplied up into an annualised number.
Appliances	These are items which are Medical Devices rather than drugs but which are also registered on the drug tariff.
BNF	The British National Formulary (BNF) is a reference book containing the standard list of medicines used in UK prescribing. It gives information on the indications, dosages and side effects for over 70,000 medicines.
BNF Drilldown	This gives an option to select an active ingredient into individual prescribed products
BNF Items	The BNF codes from this pseudo-classification are used in the prescribing dataset as a unique identifier to show what was prescribed. These BNF codes can tell you a lot about a drug or appliance. The codes are in a hierarchy: The first characters tell you which part of the BNF a drug is from. For example, drugs in BNF Chapter 4 (Central Nervous System) will always begin with ‘04’. The BNF is then further subdivided into sections. For example, Antidepressant Drugs, which are contained within Chapter 4 Section 3 of the BNF, all begin with ‘0403’ The last few characters of the BNF code give more detailed information about a drug. It tells you what the drug is, it tells you whether the product is generic or branded, and it tells you more about the presentation of the drug (e.g. whether it is a capsule or tablet, and what the strength of the drug is)
BNF Presentations	See BNF Items
Condition	This refers to Long Term Conditions – A long-term condition is an illness that cannot be cured. It can usually be controlled with medicines or other treatments. Examples of long-term conditions include diabetes, arthritis, high blood pressure, epilepsy, asthma and some mental health conditions.
Cost Alignment Saving Opportunity	This looks at the difference between members of a PCN and the varying purchase prices. This allows for negotiation and potential for buying groups.
Cost of Prescribing	This is the overall cost of prescribing for that item in the selected period.
Current Monthly Cost	This shows only the monthly cost.
Drilldown	By selecting a choice in the initial charts you are able to “drill down” to further granularity by clicking on the item you wish to breakdown.
GP Practice	General practitioners (GPs) treat all common medical conditions and refer patients to hospitals and other medical services for urgent and specialist treatment. The Practice is the business which the GP is employed by.
ICS	Integrated care systems (ICSs) are partnerships that bring together NHS organisations, local authorities and others to take collective responsibility for planning services, improving health and reducing inequalities across geographical areas. England is split into 42 ICS’s.
ICS Average
Long Term Conditions	A long-term condition is an illness that cannot be cured. It can usually be controlled with medicines or other treatments. Examples of long-term conditions include diabetes, arthritis, high blood pressure, epilepsy, asthma and some mental health conditions.
Monthly (3 month average)	This is the total cost over three months divided by three to give an average.
Number of Prescriptions	This is the number of individual prescriptions have been written for this item.
PCN	Primary care networks – PCNs build on existing primary care services and enable greater provision of proactive, personalised, coordinated and more integrated health and social care .
PCN Cost Per Patient	As below
Per Patient	This is the overall cost for the Practice divided by the number of patients registered with a particular long term condition at that surgery.
Per Patient Prescribing Variation	This shows the differential in cost per Surgery vs STP on a per patient basis using the number of patients registered with a particular long term condition.
Population	Population is defined as all nationals present in, or temporarily absent from a country, and aliens permanently settled in a country. In this case England.
Practice	See GP Practice.
Practice Cost	Cost per GP Practice.
Prescribing Variation	This is the difference between the practice cost and the STP average.
Saving Opportunity	In theory the information generated by the prescribing variation could be used as a discussion and negotiation between Practice and Supplier to address any significant variation.
Selected BNF Items	These are the items selected in the drop down which will be viewed in the chart below.
STP Average	A combined cost of all practices in an STP (Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships) now replaced by ICS/ICB
Top 50 BNF Presentations	In this instance the top 50 highest cost items for a selected STP are shown.
Unit Cost	This is the total cost divided by the number units prescribed.

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