National therapeutic indicators data visualisation
Data to September 2021

About this release

The National Therapeutic Indicators (NTIs) are a set of prescribing indicators that are used for quality improvement work. The publication is an update of prescribing data analysis up to September 2021. This visualisation presents information by NHS Board, Health and Social Partnership, General Practitioner (GP) practice, GP cluster and practice peer group.

Main points

The example indicator below shows:

• The number of antibiotic items prescribed per 1,000 list size population per day increased across Scotland from 1.24 items in July to September 2020 to 1.34 in the same period in 2021.
• All NHS boards follow an increase in trend with the exception of NHS Shetland which shows a decrease by ≈ 7% in July to September 2021 (1.12 items) compare to the same period in 2020 (1.21 items).
• The number of antibiotic items prescribed per 1,000 list size population per day was ≈ 1.5 times higher in NHS Lanarkshire (1.64 items) compared to NHS Lothian (1.12 items) between July and September 2021.

Three point time trend showing total antibiotic prescription items per 1,000 list size per day for each NHS Board and Scotland

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Antibiotics: total antibiotic prescription items per 1,000 list size per day

Further information is available from the prescribing webpages (external website).

Background

The data visualisation allows a more in-depth and interactive visual analysis of the current National Therapeutic Indicators paper publication, published by the Effective Prescribing and Therapeutics Division of the Scottish Government. The visualisation includes a presentation of variation and prescribing trends, and comparisons of Health and Social Care Partnerships, GP clusters and practice peer groups. This update also provides a practice level dashboard showing comparisons between indicators, health and social care partnership trends and an NHS board indicator summary.

This interactive visualisation allows the user to look at the variation in prescribing practice between GP practices and should be useful to both prescribers and associated prescribing staff who want an easy to access visualisation view of prescribing data.

A number of interactive views are available that show:

• A dropdown menu of indicators by therapeutic area
• A summary page of indicators by GP practice and NHS board
• A view of each therapeutic indicator at a specific point in time
• The prescribing rate for each indicator over time, for Scotland, NHS Board and GP practice, by cluster, or by peer group
• A comparison of data at three different time points for NHS Boards, Health and Social Care Partnerships and GP Clusters

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 update includes expanded detail for a number of indicators to help aid clinicians and prescribing advisers.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be April 2022.