Purchase of Northern Ireland Prescribing Individual Drug Data

Purchase of Northern Ireland Prescribing Individual Drug Data Effect from April 2012 Prescription Data

Information Available

Information on the activity of prescribing for individual drugs is available to purchase from the Family Practitioner Services, Information and Registration Unit of the Business Services Organisation.

 Information can be purchased on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis.  Information is provided on the number of prescriptions dispensed, volume and ingredient cost paid for each form of the drug for which information is held.  Information is available at Sub-regional and Northern Ireland level.  Information is provided via email in a Microsoft Excel format.

Source of information

The information provided is collected directly from the Northern Ireland Prescription Payment System (NIPPI) on a monthly basis. It is based solely on data collected from HS21 prescriptions, which have been dispensed in Northern Ireland in a given month. Information on prescribing activity is available 3 months in arrears i.e. information on prescriptions written by Practitioners and dispensed in January is available the first week in April.

Cost of the Service

The cost of availing of this service is £75.00 plus VAT for each month’s data supplied for up to a maximum set of six drugs. Multiple sets of drugs may be purchased at the same rate. Therefore the current cost for receiving an annual extract of up to 6 drugs will be £900.00 plus VAT.

Method of Payment

For customers who receive information on a monthly basis the service is charged at £225.00+VAT per quarter and is invoiced directly from our Finance Directorate.

Invoice Month Charge Prescription Data Supplied January £225+VAT August to October April £225+VAT November to January July £225+VAT February to April October £225+VAT May to July

All adhoc requests are invoiced, by our Finance Directorate immediately the data has been despatched.

2 Franklin Street, Belfast, BT2 8DQ Tel: 028 9536 3948/ 0300 555 0113 Web:www.hscbusiness.hscni.net Contact Details

Jacqueline Sheridan Pharmaceutical Information Manager Information and Registration Unit Family Practitioner Services HSC Business Services Organisation 2 Franklin Street Belfast Northern Ireland BT2 8DQ

Telephone Number: 028 9536 3979 Email Address: [email protected]

2 Franklin Street, Belfast, BT2 8DQ Tel: 028 9536 3948/ 0300 555 0113 Web:www.hscbusiness.hscni.net