Sales and purchases data reflect when medicines were purchased and not when they were actually used. Sales and purchases may differ between quarters due to economic reasons rather than medical reasons. For example Trusts may bulk buy in one quarter but use the product in several subsequent quarters.
Local level data (Regions, STPs, CCGs, Trusts) will not add up to national data due to unidentified organisations which are included in the national totals but not against local level organisations.
NHS organisations differ widely in the populations they serve so data at National (England), NHS Regions, STPs and CCG levels are standardised by the estimated resident populations.
For hospital Trusts data the number of FCE days of hospital care for the time period under consideration (taken from the Hospital Episode Statistics data) has been used to standardise the data. The values vary significantly, with more specialist hospitals, for example, the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases NHS Foundation Trust reporting fewer than 10,000 days of hospital care per year, whereas larger Trusts such as Bart’s Health NHS Trust report over 800,000 days of hospital care per year.
Trust level data should not be compared with the national, Region, STP or CCG data due to the differing data sources and standardisation methodologies applied.
This scorecard covers some highly specialised medicines so differences in use across organisations are to be expected.