Dispenser payments and prescription cost analysis
Financial year 2021 to 2022

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) reports on the number and cost of NHS prescriptions dispensed in the community in Scotland for the financial year 2021/22. It includes a breakdown of dispensing contractor payments, which are for services provided (remuneration) and products dispensed (reimbursement). The report also includes additional information on specific Community Pharmacy services.

Main points

Both the volume and costs of medicines increased in the last year, reflecting pre-pandemic trends.  The volume and cost of medicines and provision of pharmacy services within the community in Scotland has increased over the last ten years due to a range of factors, including an aging population, newly available drugs and a shift from secondary to primary care for a number of high-cost medicines.

Overall cost

• The total (net) cost for dispensing items and providing services in 2021/22 was £1.45 billion, increasing by 3.7% from £1.4 billion in 2020/21. This follows a period of largely rising cost, increasing by 30% over the last 10 years.

Products reimbursed

• The total number of items reimbursed between 2020/21 and 2021/22 increased by 4.3%, from 102.1 million to 106.5 million items. Over the last 10 years the total number of items reimbursed has increased by 9.8% from 97 million items in 2012/13.
• The cost of items reimbursed (Net Ingredient Cost) increased by 4.5% between 2020/21 and 2021/22 and increased by 26% over the last 10 years.
• Apixaban, used to prevent blood clots, and beclometasone dipropionate and formoterol fumarate, used to treat respiratory conditions, had the highest total Gross Ingredient Cost in 2021/22, at a cost of £34m and £23.3m respectively.

Services provided

• The cost for remuneration of services was £296.6 million in 2021/22. This was a small decrease (0.2%) from the previous year (£297.4 million).

Background

Information on NHS services provided in community pharmacies, NHS prescriptions dispensed in Scotland and drugs prescribed in Scotland and dispensed elsewhere in the United Kingdom is obtained from the Prescribing Information System. GPs write the vast majority of these prescriptions, with the remainder written by authorised prescribers such as nurses, dentists, pharmacists and allied health professionals (AHPs). The data also include prescriptions written in hospitals that were dispensed in the community, but prescriptions dispensed within hospitals are not included. All these prescriptions are dispensed by dispensing contractors, which includes community pharmacies, dispensing doctors, a small number of specialist appliance suppliers and stoma providers. Dispensing contractors receive two distinct types of payment: remuneration for the service they provide and reimbursement for the products they dispense. Payments are derived from information gathered by Practitioner Services after the pricing of prescriptions has taken place and then payment is made on behalf of NHS Boards. The main statistics reported on in this publication are volume, which is the count of all the prescription items reimbursed, the costs of remuneration of services and the cost of items reimbursed.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be September 2023.