GP Practice Prescribing Chemical-level Data - July 2012

Note: Due to the large file size (over 500MB) standard spreadsheet applications may not be able to handle the volumes of data contained in the monthly data sets. Data users will need to analyse the information using specialist data-handling software.

What does the data cover?

General practice prescribing data is a list of all medicines, dressings and appliances that are prescribed and dispensed each month. A record will only be produced when this has occurred and there is no record for a zero total.

For each practice in England, the following information is presented at chemical level for each medicine (by chemical name), dressing and appliance;

• the total number of items prescribed and dispensed
• the total net ingredient cost
• the total actual cost

The data covers NHS prescriptions written in England and dispensed in the community in the UK. Prescriptions written in England but dispensed outside England are included. The data includes prescriptions written by GPs and other non-medical prescribers (such as nurses and pharmacists) who are attached to GP practices.

GP practices are identified only by their national code, so an additional data file - linked to the first by the practice code - provides further detail in relation to the practice.