Prescription Drugs
(asked on 25th January 2023) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many prescriptions were issued and filled by the NHS in each of the past five years; and what estimate they have made of the average gross profit margin for the pharmacist on each prescription.
The table below shows the total number of items dispensed in the community in England in each of the last five financial years broken down by English dispenser account type.
Dispenser Account Type | 2017/2018 | 2018/2019 | 2019/2020 | 2020/2021 | 2021/2022 |
English Appliance Contractor | 8,627,910 | 9,043,637 | 9,787,035 | 10,020,141 | 10,908,020 |
English Dispensing Doctor | 69,672,685 | 70,368,215 | 72,024,656 | 70,530,057 | 72,082,457 |
English Personal Administration | 14,829,104 | 14,606,249 | 14,468,189 | 13,180,273 | 13,231,305 |
English Pharmacy Contractor | 1,013,292,403 | 1,015,065,205 | 1,035,763,855 | 1,016,856,763 | 1,043,054,789 |
Total | 1,106,422,102 | 1,109,083,306 | 1,132,043,735 | 1,110,587,234 | 1,139,276,571 |
Source: NHS Business Services Authority
The table below shows the average medicine margin retained per item for English pharmacy contractors for the five financial years (2017/18 – 2021/22). Medicine margin being the difference between what the pharmacy pays for a medicine and what they are reimbursed by the National Health Service. These figures do not include any fees for service provision by the pharmacy paid by the NHS. Where it was measured that pharmacy contractors retained margin above or below the contractually agreed level, an adjustment would have been made through changes to Category M (part VIII of the Drug Tariff) reimbursement prices.
England only |
|
|
| Average margin per item (£) | Prescription items (m) |
2017/18 | £0.79 | 1013 |
2018/19 | £0.62 | 1015 |
2019/20 | £0.72 | 1036 |
2020/21 | £0.96 | 1017 |
2021/22 | £0.89 | 1043 |
Source: Department of Health and Social Care