Prescribing across the NHS in England

Prescribing measures

The charts below show the distribution of prescribing behaviour across CCGs in NHS England on various measures covering safety, efficacy and cost-effectiveness (read more about these).

If all CCGs across England had prescribed at least as well as the median CCG on the cost-saving measures the monthly cost saving in September 2024 would have been:
£2,543,000

If they had prescribed as well as the best decile the saving would have been:
£5,594,000

View prescribing measures →

Low priority prescribing

NHS England produce a list of products considered low priority for funding by the NHS. The total monthly spend on such products in September 2024 was: £5,320,000

If every CCG had prescribed low priority products at least as sparingly as the median CCG the monthly cost saving in September 2024 would have been:
£652,300

If they had prescribed at the level achieved by the best decile the saving would have been:
£1,869,000

View distribution of low priority prescribing →

PPU cost savings

There is wide variation in the unit cost of a number of medicines prescribed across England, due to the way the reimbursement system is structured.

We have calculated the potential monthly cost saving if every CCG achieved the unit cost obtained by the best 10%. In September 2024 this was:
£32,870,000

View cost savings breakdown →

Impact of price concessions

We have estimated the additional spending due to price concessions on out-of-stock products by taking the latest available prescribing data from September 2024 and projecting forwards. In November 2024 this amounts to:
£11,920,000

View price concessions breakdown →