NHSBSA report shows increase in prescription items dispensed in the community in England last year

NHSBSA report shows increase in prescription items dispensed in the community in England last year

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) has published the annual Prescription Cost Analysis (PCA) for 2024/25. It includes information about the costs and volumes of prescriptions that have been dispensed in the community in England. 

The key findings showed that:

• The cost of prescription items dispensed in the community was £11.2 billion, a 2% increase from £10.9 billion in 2023/24.
• The number of prescription items dispensed in the community was 1.26 billion, a 4% increase from 1.21 billion in 2023/24.
• The report shows an upwards trend in the cost of prescription items, increasing by 20% from 2015/16 to 2024/25, an increase of £1.86 billion. The total number of prescription items dispensed has also increased by 16% from 2015/16 to 2024/25, an increase of 170 million items.
• Atorvastatin (a statin medication) was the most dispensed drug in England with 73 million items, whilst Dapagliflozin (an antidiabetic drug) was the drug with the highest cost of £333 million.
• BNF Chapter 6 Endocrine System accounted for 19% of total costs in England in 2024/25.
• BNF Chapter 2 Cardiovascular System accounted for 30% of all items dispensed in England in 2024/25.
• Forxiga 10mg tablets (a brand of antidiabetic drug) had the largest increase in cost from 2023/24, with an increase of £97 million.

Amongst other analysis, the PCA report includes the top ten most dispensed drugs by costs and items in England, and comparisons with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Data relating to medicines supplied as part of the Pharmacy First Clinical Pathways advanced service have been also included in this publication.

This publication is a National Statistic release. National Statistics status means that the PCA meets the highest standards of trustworthiness, quality, and public value and complies with all aspects of the Code of Practice for Statistics.

For the full report, go to: PCA England.

Points to note:

• Prescription ‘items’ refers to individual drugs or inhalers etc on a prescription form, however a ‘prescription’ can include multiple medicines on it.
• Medicines are classified by their main usage. However, they can sometimes be prescribed for other reasons. For example, some antidepressants can be used to treat people suffering from chronic primary pain. We don’t capture this at the NHSBSA during processing and so can’t determine the reason that a prescription was issued.
• These statistics are based on the financial year and not on the calendar year as some other sources of data may be. Calendar year data is provided in the supporting Excel tables.
• The NHSBSA publishes a monthly administrative management information dataset for PCA using the same methodology as these statistics. However, while our annual PCA is an Official Statistic, the monthly dataset is not.
• There is a slight difference between the annual National Statistics and the monthly administrative data for PCA. The annual publication uses the geographical structure as of the 31 March for that year, while the monthly data uses the structure at the end of the month.

The NHS Business Services Authority is an arm’s length body of the Department of Health and Social Care and provides a range of critical central services to NHS organisations, NHS contractors, patients and the public. Its purpose is to deliver business service excellence to the NHS to help people live longer, healthier lives, and its vision is to be the provider of national, at scale business services for the health and social care system. For more information about the NHSBSA, visit: www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk