GP practice prescribing data - Chemical level

In his letter to cabinet ministers on 7 July 2011, the Prime Minister restated the commitment to make available "prescribing data by GP practice by December 2011".

This data was released for the first time on 14 December 2011, and provided information relating to September 2011. Data for subsequent months will be released monthly thereafter.

Covering all general practices in England, the data includes figures on the number of prescription items that are dispensed each month and information relating to costs.

What information is being made available? -All prescribed and dispensed medicines (by chemical name), dressings and appliances (at section level) are listed for each GP practice. -For each GP practice, the total number of items that were prescribed and then dispensed is shown. -The total Net Ingredient Cost and the total Actual Cost of these items is shown. This data does not list each individual prescription and does not contain any patient identifiable data.