National therapeutic indicators data visualisation
Data to June 2026
An Official Statistics publication for Scotland
- Published
- 27 October 2026 (Latest release)
- Type
- Statistical report
- Author
- Public Health Scotland
Please note that the "Long Term Strong Opiods > 3 months" indictor has been revised for the 27 October release as it was previously calculated using a definition of long term strong opioid prescribing of 6 months or more rather than 3 months or more as intended.
About this release
This quarterly release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) is an update of the National Therapeutic Indicators (NTIs) for data for prescriptions data, showing information on prescriptions prescribed and reimbursed by the NHS up to 30 June 2026. Ensuring quality and effective prescribing is a key priority area for NHS Scotland, delivering improvements to patient safety, person-centred care and cost-effective use of medicines. The NTIs support this work, using prescription data to provide a measure of prescribing activity across NHS Boards, Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs), GP clusters and GP practices.
Main points
There are currently 110 primary care prescribing indicators, of which 37 are also presented based on care home residents, for prescribing in the community. In addition, there are 17 secondary care prescribing indicators detailed in the publication, related to hospital prescribing. One of the indicators is selected each quarter to demonstrate the type of data that is available.
The indicator selected for this quarter focuses on the prescribing of high dose gabapentinoids. National clinical guidance highlights that high dose gabapentinoid use is associated with an increased risk of adverse effects and should be regularly reviewed to ensure prescribing remains appropriate.
The chart below shows that the number of people prescribed a gabapentinoid at an average daily dose equivalent to >3900mg gabapentin (Pregabalin >650mg) over the previous 6 months per 1,000 list size has decreased over time, from 0.5 in April to June 2024 to 0.47 in April to June 2026. The trend indicates improvement in prescriber compliance with the prescribing guidelines over the reporting period.
Background
This is the latest release of the data visualisation and further developments will follow, as prioritised by a steering group for this work which is commissioned by the Effective Prescribing and Therapeutics division of the Scottish Government.
The data visualisation allows a more in-depth and interactive visual analysis of the current NTIs as defined by the Effective Prescribing and Therapeutics Division of the Scottish Government.
The visualisation includes a presentation of variation and prescribing trends, and comparisons of HSCP, GP clusters and practice peer groups. This update also provides a practice level dashboard showing comparisons between indicators, HSCP trends and an NHS Board indicator summary. Prescribing trends for hospital prescribing is also presented at NHS Board level.
This interactive visualisation allows the user to look at the variation in prescribing practice between GP practices and will be useful to both prescribers, prescribing advisors and other associated prescribing staff who want an 'easy to access' visualisation view of prescribing data.
An accompanying dashboard view displaying NTIs for Respiratory, Diabetes, Mental Health and Chronic Pain alongside already published Admissions, Prevalence and demographics data is also available.
Further information
The next release of this publication will be January 2027.
General enquiries
If you have an enquiry relating to this publication, please contact David Scott at phs.prescribing@phs.scot.
Media enquiries
If you have a media enquiry relating to this publication, please contact the Communications and Engagement team.
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Older versions of this publication
Versions of this publication released before 16 March 2020 may be found on the Data and Intelligence, Health Protection Scotland or Improving Health websites.