Prescriptions: Fees and Charges
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of prescription items dispensed in (a) Milton Keynes and (b) Buckinghamshire were exempt from charges for each of the last three years.
Answered by Karin Smyth
The information requested has been provided by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA). It has not been possible to collate data for the Milton Keynes and Buckinghamshire area alone as this would require the NHSBSA to hold postcodes for all addresses in this area, however we do hold data for the two National Health Service integrated care boards (ICBs) which cover the Milton Keynes and Buckinghamshire area, namely the NHS Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes ICB and the NHS Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West ICB. Therefore, the following table shows the percentage of prescription items for which the patient held a prescription pre-payment certificate or did not pay a charge because the item was covered by an existing exemption that were dispensed for the NHS Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes ICB, for 2022, 2023, and 2024:
Year | Percentage of items where no per item charge was paid at the point of dispensing |
2022 | 93.73% |
2023 | 93.95% |
2024 | 94.31% |
In addition, the following table shows the percentage of prescription items for which the patient held a prescription pre-payment certificate or did not pay a charge because the item was covered by an existing exemption that were dispensed for the NHS Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West ICB, for 2022, 2023, and 2024:
Year | Percentage of items where no per item charge was paid at the point of dispensing |
2022 | 92.91% |
2023 | 93.26% |
2024 | 93.69% |
To note, prescriptions purchased using a prescription pre-payment certificate are recorded as exempt at the point of dispensing by the NHSBSA. Given this, prescription pre-payment certificate dispensing data is included in the above data set.
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