Respiratory Diseases: Medical Equipment
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of dry powder inhalers were prescribed by the NHS in the last year for which data is available.
Answered by Karin Smyth
The data below is based on figures published in the Prescription Cost Analysis. It includes all community dispensing in England, regardless of where they were prescribed, where the prescriptions have been submitted to the NHS Business Service Authority (NHSBSA) for payment. The list of inhaler products is derived from products in the NHSBSA’s dictionary of medicines and devices database with a pharmaceutical formulation of inhalation powder.
In the 12 months from December 2023 to November 2024, 14.4 million such prescription items were dispensed. The term items refers to the number of times an inhalation product appears on a prescription form, not the quantity prescribed. Some prescriptions may be for multiple inhalers, whilst other may be for refills of a previously supplied inhalation device. These made up 27.9% of the total 51.6 million items of the three commonly prescribed inhaler formulations, namely: pressurised inhalation; inhalation powder: and inhalation solution.
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