General Pharmaceutical Services for Northern Ireland: Annual Statistics 2024/25

General Pharmaceutical Services for Northern Ireland: Annual Statistics 2024/25

An Accredited Official Statistics Publication
Published by: BSO Family Practitioner Services Information Unit

Contact: Bethany McDowell
Telephone: 028 9536 3783
Email: Bethany.McDowell@hscni.net

Theme: General Pharmaceutical Services
Coverage: Northern Ireland
Frequency: Annual

Publication date: 26 June 2025

Key Facts

• There were 45.7 million items dispensed. This is the highest figure on record and was an increase of 0.7% on 2023/24.

• The total ingredient cost (before discount) was £497.0 million. This was a decrease of 0.9% on the previous year.

• Antidepressants were dispensed to 26% of the female population. For males the equivalent proportion was 16%.

• Northern Ireland had 508 community pharmacies. This is the lowest figure recorded since the beginning of this series.

• There were 26.6 pharmacies per 100,000 people. Fermanagh and Omagh had the highest per capita concentration of pharmacies (39.3 per 100,000 people) but still had the longest average travel distance (1.6 miles compared to the NI average 0.9 miles). Lisburn and Castlereagh had the lowest concentration with 17.3 pharmacies per 100,000 people.

Annual Series Tables

Download the annual pharmaceutical services statistics by clicking on the button below. This annual series contains high level summaries of pharmaceutical statistics in Northern Ireland related to the following topics:

• Tables 1.1 to 1.9 provide an overview of community pharmacy services across Northern Ireland including information on service provision at geographical areas (Local Government Districts and Local Commissioning Groups), dispensing volumes and expenditure to provide a picture of relative workloads and population distance to nearest pharmacy. Key metrics are compared with equivalents from England, Scotland and Wales. Data in tables 1.1 to 1.8 are based on community pharmacies and associated dispensing activity only. Data in table 1.9 is based on community pharmacies and appliance contractors.
• Tables 2.1 to 2.11 relate to numbers of dispensed prescription items and associated ingredient costs. These tables can be used to give an indication of prescribing patterns of the Northern Ireland population at varying levels including geographical areas (LGDs and LCGs), British National Formulary (BNF) chapters and patient demographics. Key metrics are compared with equivalents from England, Scotland and Wales. Data in these tables refer to dispensing activity across all contractors in Northern Ireland (and Scotland, Wales and England for the UK comparisons).
• Tables 3.1 to 3.20 provide insight to individual patient information relating to the regular dispensing of selected drug categories of interest - Anti-Depressant Medication, Diabetes Medication/Products, Opioid Analgesics, Oral Anticoagulants and Antibiotics. Data in these tables are calculated based on dispensing activity across all contractors in Northern Ireland.

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Revisions

The use of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology has enabled the capture of additional patients potentially previously missed as a result of unsuccessfully scanned prescriptions (see section 6 Publication Notes for more information). This technology has been utilised to identify patients and assign demographic information over the entire time period covered (with the exception of January 2020, for which no prescription images are available), causing a revision to the back series of affected tables beginning in 2017/18. Consequently, the figures presented in this latest report will differ from historic information in previous publications and should not be used for comparison purposes. Each trend chart affected by this revision will be denoted by (R) in the title.

As a consequence of the inclusion of OCR technology, methodological changes have been introduced in the allocation of patient residence, age and gender. This has resulted in a small number of changes to previously published figures within these demographic breakdowns.

While the adoption of OCR technology has improved the overall data quality contained in this publication, it has not been possible to guarantee the capture of every patient in each analysed period. For more information, see section 6 of the Publication Notes at the bottom of this page.

1. Overview

This section provides statistics on dispensing activity across all contractors in Northern Ireland in 2024/25.

1.1 Dispensing by contractor type

There were 519 contractors dispensing prescription items in Northern Ireland on 31st March 2025. This was a decrease of 3 contractors compared with the previous year. Contractor numbers have remained relatively stable in recent years, but overall have decreased by 4.9% since 2014/15 when there were 546 active contractors.

Figure 1.1: Total Number of Contractors by Type, 2024/25

Contractor Type	Number of Contractors	%
Community Pharmacy	508	97.9
Appliance Contractor	2	0.4
Dispensing Doctor	9	1.7
Overall Total	519	100.0

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1.2 Total dispensing

There were 45.7 million items dispensed in the community in Northern Ireland in 2024/25 across all contractors. This was an increase of 0.7% on the previous year and is the highest level of dispensing recorded. This equated to BSO processing an average of 2.2 million prescription forms per month throughout the year, up 1.6% on 2023/24.

Dispensing activity in Northern Ireland continues to be dominated by community pharmacies, which accounted for 99.2% of all items dispensed.

Figure 1.2: Millions of items dispensed by contractor type, 2024/25

Contractor Type	Number of Items (millions)	%
Community Pharmacy	45.3	99.2
Appliance Contractor	0.3	0.6
Dispensing Doctor	0.1	0.2
Overall Total	45.7	100.0

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1.3 Most dispensed medications

The ten most commonly dispensed medications accounted for over one quarter (25.5%) of total drug dispensing note 1.The most commonly dispensed medication was Atorvastatin, which is typically used to treat high blood cholesterol, with just under 1.8 million items dispensed.

The ten most commonly dispensed medications are listed below. All medications are listed under their generic non-branded name and the figures incorporate all strengths available on prescription.

Figure 1.3: Ten most commonly dispensed medications in Northern Ireland, 2024/25

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1.4 Total ingredient cost

The total ingredient cost note 2 for prescription items dispensed in Northern Ireland in 2024/25 was £497.0 million. This was a decrease of 0.9% on the previous year.

Ingredient costs for prescription items are quite sensitive to market conditions and hence can vary, impacting the total cost. An example is Apixaban, an anti-coagulant. Although the number of Apixaban items dispensed increased between 2023/24 and 2024/25 (from 336,130 to 361,967), the total ingredient cost over this period fell by almost 80% (from £12.3 million to £2.5 million) due to the increase in availability of generic non-branded versions of Apixaban. As shown below, dispensing from community pharmacies accounted for 95.9% of the total ingredient cost for 2024/25.

Figure 1.4: Ingredient Cost by contractor type, 2024/25

Contractor Type	Ingredient Cost (£ millions)	%
Community Pharmacy	476.6	95.9
Appliance Contractor	19.8	4.0
Dispensing Doctor	0.6	0.1
Overall Total	497.0	100.0

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1.5 Total ingredient costs by medication

The ten medications with the highest total ingredient costs represented 17.3% of the total ingredient cost for total drug dispensing note 3 for 2024/25. Dapagliflozin, a medication used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, had the highest total ingredient cost at £11.3 million, an increase of over 30% on the cost of Dapagliflozin for 2023/24 following a 29.5% increase in the number of Dapagliflozin items dispensed. Figure 1.5 lists the ten medications with the highest total ingredient costs in 2024/25. All medications are listed under their generic non-branded names and the figures incorporate all strengths available on prescription.

There is minimal crossover between the ten most dispensed medications (see Figure 1.3) and the ten with the highest ingredient costs. Omeprazole is the only medication to appear on both lists in 2024/25. This highlights the relatively low ingredient costs of many commonly dispensed medications.

Figure 1.5: Ten medications with highest total ingredient costs in Northern Ireland, 2024/25

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1.6 Additional Pharmacy Payments

In addition to the reimbursement pharmacy contractors received for products dispensed, in 2024/25 £125.2 million of other payments were processed by BSO note 4. These payments are related to a variety of services and professional fees, as well as additional payments for services made on behalf of the Public Health Agency. Professional fees include dispensing related fees as detailed in the Drug Tariff, such as fees for ordinary dispensing, instalment dispensing, controlled drugs and extemporaneous dispensing, or other payment schemes such as essential small pharmacy, out of hours services or rural access note 5.

In addition to professional and dispensing related fees, payments are made to contractors for the delivery of publicly available services note 6, note 7. These services include pharmacy first service for everyday healthcare conditions; emergency hormonal contraception; needle and syringe exchange; stop smoking and vaccination services. Payments are made for the delivery of these services and are in addition to any ingredient cost and associated dispensing fees. Payments made in relation to these services are mostly driven by demand from the public. Not all services will be available in every pharmacy.

A summary of some of the commonly available services is included in Figure 1.6 below note 8.

Figure 1.6: Total Payment for the delivery of selected pharmacy services, 2024/25

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Note 1:

Total drug dispensing excludes appliances.

Note 2:

Ingredient cost is based on the gross cost of items before discounts. It will not necessarily reflect the actual amount paid by FPS. It also excludes payments made to community pharmacists for providing dispensing services.

Note 3:

Total ingredient cost by medication excludes appliances.

Note 4:

The total is net of any recoveries of payments made during the 2024/25 financial year.

Note 5:

For a full detailed list of fees, including their reimbursement value, please see General Notes in the NI Drug Tariff.

Note 6:

A full detailed list of commissioned services is available at SPPG Services and Guidance.

Note 7:

Some services have been commissioned by the Public Health Agency. BSO makes payments for these services on their behalf.

Note 8:

A more detailed list of additional pharmacy payments is available in our Annex Tables which can be downloaded from the top of this page or from the BSO Website

2. Pharmacy Statistics

This section contains basic statistics on community pharmacies including the number, size and distribution of pharmacies throughout Northern Ireland note 9

2.1 Number of Pharmacies

There were 508 pharmacies in Northern Ireland on 31st March 2025. This was a reduction of 3 pharmacies compared with 2023/24. This is the lowest number of pharmacies here in the last ten years, a period in which numbers were relatively stable until around 2018/19 when numbers began reducing from the 532 open that year.

At Local Commissioning Group (LCG) level, pharmacy numbers have declined in all but one of Northern Ireland’s 5 Health Trust areas over the last 10 years. The Western Trust has retained the same number of pharmacies as were open in 2014/15 at 98 pharmacies. The greatest decrease has been in Belfast LCG where the number of pharmacies has reduced by 7.5% (10 pharmacies) since 2014/15.

At Local Government District (LGD) level, pharmacy numbers have declined in all but one of Northern Ireland’s 11 districts over the last 10 years. The only increase has been in Fermanagh and Omagh where there are now 46 pharmacies, an increase of 2.2% (or 1 pharmacy) since 2014/15.

The greatest percentage drop in pharmacy numbers has been in Lisburn and Castlereagh, which had 26 pharmacies at the end of 2024/25. This was a reduction of 10.3% (or 3 pharmacies) on its total in 2014/15.

A full breakdown of changes in pharmacy numbers across all LGDs over the past decade can be seen in Figure 2.1 below

Figure 2.1: Change in pharmacy numbers at LGD level between 2014/15 to 2024/25

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2.2 Pharmacies per 100,000 population

The number of pharmacies per 100,000 people in Northern Ireland was 26.6 in 2024/25, which was a reduction of 0.4% on the previous year note 10.

This continues the gradual decline in the ratio of pharmacies to population over more than a decade. In 2014/15 there were 29.1 pharmacies per 100,000 population. This trend has been influenced by a combination of population growth and a reduction in pharmacy numbers.

There is considerable variation in the figures for individual LGDs across Northern Ireland, which can be seen in Figure 2.2 below.

In 2024/25, Fermanagh and Omagh had the most pharmacies per 100,000 people at 39.3. This rate was more than twice that of Lisburn and Castlereagh, which had the lowest ratio of pharmacies to population (17.3).

Figure 2.2: Pharmacies per 100,000 population for Northern Ireland LGDs, 2024/25

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At a UK level, Northern Ireland continues to have the most pharmacies per 100,000 population. The latest available statistics for all countries, which relate to 2023/24, show that the UK average was 19.2 pharmacies per 100,000 people. Northern Ireland’s figure was 26.7, which was 39.5% higher than the UK average note 11.

The higher figure for Northern Ireland may be linked to the low number of dispensing GP practices here. These practices can dispense prescriptions directly to patients who meet certain criteria note 12. In Northern Ireland, on 31st March 2025, there were 4 dispensing practices (with 9 dispensing doctors), accounting for 0.2% of all items dispensed in 2024/25. In the rest of the UK, according to the latest available figures, there are 1,107 dispensing practices, representing around 7% of all medicines dispensed annually note 13.

Figure 2.3: Pharmacies per 100,000 population across the United Kingdom, 2023/24

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2.3 Distance to Nearest Pharmacy

It is estimated that over 99% of the Northern Ireland population lived within five miles of their nearest pharmacy in 2024/25 note 14. In many cases, the distance between home and pharmacy was far shorter - 72.5% of all people lived within one mile of their nearest pharmacy, with an average distance from home to pharmacy of 0.9 miles. A full overview is provided in Figure 2.4 below.

Figure 2.4: Population proximity to pharmacies at LGD level, 2024/25

Local Government District	Average Distance (miles)	Population within 1 mile (%)	Population within 3 miles (%)	Population within 5 miles (%)
Antrim and Newtownabbey	0.8	76.4	96.8	100.0
Ards and North Down	0.6	84.0	99.1	100.0
Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon	1.2	60.2	90.0	98.8
Belfast	0.3	98.9	100.0	100.0
Causeway Coast and Glens	1.3	57.5	86.4	98.9
Derry City and Strabane	0.8	81.7	94.9	99.2
Fermanagh and Omagh	1.6	47.8	82.0	98.0
Lisburn and Castlereagh	0.8	80.6	96.4	100.0
Mid and East Antrim	1.0	71.0	89.8	98.7
Mid Ulster	1.5	49.0	83.4	98.8
Newry, Mourne and Down	1.2	58.1	91.4	99.9
Northern Ireland	0.9	72.5	92.8	99.4

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While pharmacy coverage is almost universal at five mile level, there is some local variation across Northern Ireland at shorter distances. This is illustrated in Figure 2.5 below which shows the percentage of the population living within a three mile radius of a community pharmacy by LGD in 2024/25.

Figure 2.5: Percentage of population living within three miles of a pharmacy by LGD, 2024/25

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Note 9:

All geographic breakdowns in this chapter are based on pharmacy location.

Note 10:

The Northern Ireland and sub-Northern Ireland figures have been calculated using 2022 mid-year estimates due to the unavailability of 2023 (at LCG level) or 2024 mid-year estimates at the time of production.

Note 11:

Population based statistics for the England, Scotland and Wales have been calculated using 2022 mid-year estimates to enable a like-for-like comparison with the calculated Northern Ireland figures (see Note 10).

Note 12:

Based on proximity of patient residence to GP practice and community pharmacy. Full details are available in the technical notes at the end of this publication.

Note 13:

Figures taken from Dispensing Doctors Assosciation.

Note 14:

Population is defined as active GP registration person counts at postcode level at October 2024. Distance is calculated on a straight line basis. See technical notes for futther information.

3. Pharmacy Dispensing Volumes

This section contains information on items dispensed solely within community pharmacies throughout Northern Ireland in 2024/25 note 15.

3.1 Total Dispensing

The total number of prescription items dispensed by community pharmacies was 45.3 million in 2024/25. This was an increase of 0.6% on the previous year continues the general upward trend in the number of items dispensed over the past decade. The total number of items dispensed has risen by 14.1% since 2014/15, when the figure stood at 39.7 million items.

Figure 3.1: Trend in number of items dispensed, 2014/15 to 2024/25

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Within Local Government Districts, the greatest number of items dispensed per head of population in 2024/25 was observed in Derry City and Strabane (30.1). The lowest figure was recorded in Lisburn and Castlereagh where 17.8 items were dispensed per person.

Figure 3.2: Total number of items dispensed by LGD, 2024/25 note 16

Local Government District	Items dispensed (millions)	Items per person
Antrim and Newtownabbey	3.0	20.3
Ards and North Down	3.8	23.2
Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon	4.6	20.7
Belfast	9.4	26.9
Causeway Coast and Glens	3.5	24.7
Derry City and Strabane	4.5	30.1
Fermanagh and Omagh	3.0	25.6
Lisburn and Castlereagh	2.7	17.8
Mid and East Antrim	3.3	23.4
Mid Ulster	3.3	21.7
Newry, Mourne and Down	4.4	24.1
Northern Ireland	45.3	23.7

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3.2 Dispensing by pharmacy

The average number of items dispensed per pharmacy was 89,145 in 2024/25 note 17, an increase of 2.1% on the previous year. There was considerable variation across LGDs with the highest average dispensing volumes observed in Mid and East Antrim, where pharmacies dispensed an average of 108,398 items per annum. Fermanagh and Omagh has the lowest average figure at 65,157 items per pharmacy.

While lower dispensing volumes are often associated with rural areas, the figure for Belfast shows that this is not always the case. It had the second lowest average in Northern Ireland at 75,754 items per pharmacy. This appears to be driven by the high concentration of smaller pharmacies in this council area. A full breakdown is provided in Figure 3.3 below.

Figure 3.3: Average annual dispensing per pharmacy by LGD, 2024/25

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The number of pharmacies dispensing more than 10,000 items per month on average has risen significantly over the past decade. There are now 99 pharmacies in that dispensing bracket compared with 58 in 2014/15. They now account for 19.5% of all pharmacies in Northern Ireland, almost double their proportion of 10.8% in 2014/15. This reflects the rise in items dispensed since the beginning of this series and the reduction in the number of pharmacies during that period.

At the other end of the scale, the number of pharmacies dispensing an average of 2,000 or fewer items per month has more than halved since 2014/15. In 2024/25, there were just 12 pharmacies in that bracket, 7 of which were located in Belfast LGD.

Despite these trends, Northern Ireland continues to have the lowest average dispensing volumes per pharmacy in the UK. In 2023/24, the most recent year for which comparable statistics are available, the UK average was 8,670 items per pharmacy per month. Northern Ireland’s figure was 7,351 items, which was 15.2% lower than the UK average. These figures can be seen in Figure 3.4.

Figure 3.4: Average monthly dispensing per pharmacy at UK level, 2023/24 note 18

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It should be noted that average dispensing numbers may not be directly comparable across the UK due to differences in prescribing practices.

For example, in Northern Ireland and Scotland, GPs and other prescribers can instruct pharmacists to split single items and dispense them at set intervals in the interest of patient safety. In England and Wales, the practice can be to prescribe a reduced quantity of items at a greater frequency. See the ‘Further Information’ section for additional details.

Further information about monthly average dispensing volumes in Northern Ireland, including historical trend data, is available in Annex Tables 1.4 and 1.5.

Note 15:

All geographic breakdowns in this chapter are based on pharmacy location.

Note 16:

The LGD and Northern Ireland figures have been calculated using 2022 mid-year estimates due to the unavailability of 2023 (at LCG level) or 2024 mid-year estimates at the time of production. Note that the patient prescriptions may be dispensed in a different LGD to their residence.

Note 17:

These figures do not include items dispensed from pharmacies which closed permanently prior to 31st March 2025.

Note 18:

Due to differences in methodologies, figures comparing UK nations may differ from those published elsewhere.

4. Pharmacy Dispensing Costs

This section contains information on ingredient cost note 19 of items dispensed solely within community pharmacies throughout Northern Ireland in 2024/25 note 20.

4.1 Total Ingredient Cost

The total ingredient cost for prescription items dispensed by community pharmacies in 2024/25 was £477 million. This was a decrease of 1.5% on the previous year but was 15.3% higher than 2014/15 when the figure was £413 million.

The annual total is influenced by drug prices as well as dispensing volumes. As a result, the total ingredient cost for 2024/25 represents a break in the trend of rising ingredient costs since 2018/19, despite generally increasing dispensing levels.

Figure 4.1: Trend in total ingredient cost, 2014/15 to 2024/25

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The average ingredient cost per item dispensed by community pharmacies across Northern Ireland was £10.51 in 2024/25. There was considerable variation at LGD level - the figure ranged from £9.54 per item in Derry City and Strabane to £11.88 per item in Ards and North Down.

Belfast had the highest total ingredient cost at £99.5 million. This accounted for 20.9% of the total ingredient cost for Northern Ireland. Lisburn and Castlereagh had the lowest ingredient cost at £30.3 million.

Figure 4.2: Total ingredient cost and average cost per item by LGD, 2024/25

Local Government District	Ingredient Cost (£ millions)	Average cost per item (£)
Antrim and Newtownabbey	32.0	10.78
Ards and North Down	45.2	11.88
Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon	46.9	10.27
Belfast	99.5	10.61
Causeway Coast and Glens	36.5	10.45
Derry City and Strabane	43.3	9.54
Fermanagh and Omagh	30.9	10.32
Lisburn and Castlereagh	30.3	11.36
Mid and East Antrim	34.5	10.62
Mid Ulster	32.4	9.89
Newry, Mourne and Down	45.1	10.23
Northern Ireland	476.6	10.51

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4.2 Ingredient cost per pharmacy note 21

The average ingredient cost of items dispensed per pharmacy was £936,492 in 2024/25, which was a decrease of 0.1% on the previous year. As with dispensing volumes, there were noticeable variations at LGD level.

There were three LGDs - Ards and North Down, Lisburn and Castlereagh, and Mid and East Antrim - where the average ingredient cost per pharmacy was over £1.1 million. By contrast, pharmacies in Fermanagh and Omagh had an average ingredient cost of £672,577 in 2024/25. A full breakdown of average ingredient costs per pharmacy at LGD level is provided in Figure 4.3 below.

Figure 4.3: Average annual ingredient cost per pharmacy by LGD, 2024/25

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Note 19:

Ingredient cost is based on the gross cost of items before discounts. It will not necessarily reflect the actual amount paid by FPS. It also excludes payments made to community pharmacists for providing dispensing services.

Note 20:

All geographic breakdowns in this chapter are based on pharmacy location.

Note 21:

These figures do not include items dispensed from pharmacies which closed permanently prior to 31st March 2025.

5. Dispensing Analysis

This section provides a detailed analysis of total dispensing activity in Northern Ireland in 2024/25. Unlike previous sections, it includes dispensing information from all dispensing contractors i.e. community pharmacies, dispensing doctors and appliance contractors note 22.

5.1 Background Information

The majority of figures within this section are based on matching of patient attributes - such as age, gender and geographical location - to prescription records.

This process relies on data captured during the scanning of paper prescriptions submitted for payment by contractors to FPS. In some cases, the data capture is unable to successfully read the patient attributes printed on the prescription.

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software has been utilised for the first time in this publication to extract the patient Health and Care Number (HCN) from those remaining prescriptions that did not automatically scan. The HCN is then used to link to patient registration records on the National Health Application and Infrastructure Services (NHAIS) system where information on patient age, gender and location can be assigned.

In 2024/25, patient attributable information was retrieved for 94.8 of all prescription items dispensed. This sample has been investigated for any significant bias and is considered to be representative of patient prescribing patterns across Northern Ireland.

While the adoption of OCR software has enabled the capture of additional patient information from 2017/18 onwards, which would have previously been recorded as ‘Unknowns’ in the data, it has not been possible to match a valid HCN from every prescription and there may still be some prescriptions that were not able to be assigned demographic or geographical information.

The incomplete nature of this data should be considered when examining absolute numbers of trends across time. In particular, it should be noted that scan rates vary on an annual basis. For instance, patient attributes were only retrieved from around 75% of prescriptions scanned in 2018/19. With OCR software this was improved to 88.0%, however this is still lower than the scan rate in more recent years which sits at around 90% before OCR harvested HCNs are added.

This limitation only applied to demographic and geographical breakdowns based on patient attributes within this part of the publication. Overall figures for Northern Ireland and geographic information based on community pharmacy location are not affected by the scanning issue.

5.2 Dispensing by age and gender

Females accounted for 56.4% of all prescription items which could be attributed to a gender in 2024/25. This proportion varied little at LGD level - the highest figure was 57.5% for Mid and East Antrim, while the lowest was 54.3% for Fermanagh and Omagh.

Overall 46.4% of items which could be attributed to an age were dispensed to patients aged 65 and over, with a further 34.4% to patients in the 45-64 age group. These age groups also accounted for the highest total ingredient costs of £196.5 million and £152.1 million respectively, representing nearly three quarters of the total ingredient cost which could be assigned to patient age. A full breakdown is provided in the Annex Tables accompanying this publication.

5.3 Relative Cost Index

The relationship between age/gender and prescribing cost can be examined through the use of a relative cost index. The index values are calculated by dividing the total ingredient cost of items dispensed to each age and gender group by the equivalent mid-year population estimates note 23. These are then divided by the age/gender group with the lowest relative cost, meaning the weighting for this group is 1.

Figure 5.1 below shows that the prescribing costs for both genders generally increase with age. For example, a male in the 85+ group will typically have a cost index value which is 11.22 times higher than that for a female in the 5 - 14 group. In older age brackets, men tend to have higher costs than their female counterparts, which may reflect the poorer health status and/or differences in the costs of treating conditions from which they typically suffer.

Figure 5.1: Relative Cost Index values by age and gender, 2024/25

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5.4 Dispensing by BNF Chapter

The British National Formulary (BNF) is a reference source published jointly by the British Medical Association and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society providing professional guidelines on medicine use. It is divided into chapters relating to therapeutic groups, which provide an indication of the condition for which they have generally been prescribed. Figure 5.2 below contains an overview of dispensing and associated ingredient cost by BNF chapter for Northern Ireland in 2024/25.

Figure 5.2: Items dispensed, total ingredient cost and average cost per item by BNF chapter, 2024/25

BNF Chapter	Items Dispensed (millions)	Total Ingredient Cost (£ millions)	Average Cost per Item (£)
Gastro-Intestinal System	4.5	34.1	7.64
Cardiovascular System	10.7	53.5	5.01
Respiratory System	3.1	50.2	16.36
Central Nervous System	11.3	102.3	9.04
Infections	2.0	12.0	5.89
Endocrine System	4.3	73.7	17.24
Obstetrics, Gynaecology And Urinary Tract Disorders	1.2	10.5	9.11
Malignant Disease And For Immunosuppression	0.2	13.5	71.99
Nutrition And Blood	2.4	40.9	17.23
Musculoskeletal And Joint Diseases	1.5	8.1	5.43
Eye	0.4	4.0	10.14
Ear, Nose And Oropharynx	0.5	5.1	9.27
Skin	1.5	15.9	10.93
Immunological Products And Vaccines	0.0	0.5	18.80
Anaesthesia	0.1	3.1	36.56
Other Drugs And Preparations	0.0	0.3	9.48
Dressings	0.3	11.8	37.77
Appliances	1.5	30.7	21.10
Incontinence Appliances	0.1	2.0	30.33
Stoma Appliances	0.2	14.8	64.29
Unclassified	0.1	9.9	185.22
Total	45.7	497.0	10.88

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As shown in the overview, a small number of BNF chapters represent the bulk of items dispensed. These are the chapters for the central nervous system, the cardiovascular system, the gastro-intestinal system, the endocrine system, the respiratory system and nutrition & blood. As Figure 5.3 shows, these six chapters accounted for almost 80% of all items dispensed in Northern Ireland in 2024/25.

Figure 5.3: Items dispensed by BNF chapter, 2024/25

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There were significant variations in average cost per item across BNF chapters, which is reflected in the limited correlation between dispensing volumes and total ingredient cost. The BNF chapter for Malignant Disease and for Immunosuppression (BNF chapter 8) had the highest average cost per item in 2024/25 at £71.99. Meanwhile, items related to Cardiovascular System (BNF chapter 2) had the lowest average cost per item at £5.01.

5.5 Dispensing by age group and BNF chapter

The overall figures for dispensing by BNF chapter hide variations in the type of conditions most commonly treated across different age groups. For example, medications for infections appear among the most-dispensed treatments for patients aged below 15 but do not feature within the top six BNF chapters discussed above.

While items within BNF chapter 5 (Infections), which contains antibiotics, continues to feature as one of the top most dispensed chapters for 0-4 and 5-14 age groups, there has been a 15.5% and 17.9% decrease in each group respectively on figures seen in 2023/24. This demonstrates the year-on-year variation that can be observed in dispensing these products.

Trends in older age groups continue to follow similar patterns to previous years, with items in BNF chapter 4 (Central Nervous System) most frequently dispensed for age groups 15-24, 25-44 and 45-64. Items in BNF chapter 2 (Cardiovascular System) continue to be dispensed most often for age groups 65-74, 75-84 and 85+.

As shown in Figure 5.4 below, within the older age groups (with the exception of the 85+ group), the top 3 BNF chapters accounted for over 60% of dispensing.

Figure 5.4: Most commonly dispensed BNF chapters by age group, 2024/25

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5.6 Dispensing by Deprivation

The availability of postcode information note 24 allows dispensing activity to be mapped to the Northern Ireland Multiple Deprivation Measure (MDM) produced by NISRA note 25, which is the official measure of geographical deprivation for Northern Ireland.

For the purposes of this publication, the areas covered within the MDM were divided into five quintiles, each of which contained approximately 20% of Northern Ireland’s population.

In 2024/25, the number of items dispensed and the total ingredient cost was higher for areas with higher levels of deprivation. 10.0 million items were dispensed to patients living in the most deprived areas whereas 6.8 million were dispensed to those residing in the least deprived areas. A breakdown is provided in Figure 5.5 below.

Figure 5.5: Items dispensed and ingredient cost by deprivation quintile, 2024/25

Deprivation Quintile	Total Items (millions)	% Items	Total Ingredient Cost (£ millions)	% Cost
1 (most)	10.0	21.9	100.2	20.2
2	9.5	20.7	98.8	19.9
3	8.9	19.5	95.8	19.3
4	8.1	17.7	90.6	18.2
5 (least)	6.8	14.9	81.4	16.4
Unassignable	2.4	5.3	30.1	6.1

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While the more deprived quintiles have higher total ingredient costs, this may arise due to the volume of prescriptions dispensed. For many BNF chapters, the average ingredient cost per item is actually higher for patients residing in less deprived areas. This has been illustrated in Figure 5.6 below which relates to the six most dispensed BNF chapters in 2024/25.

The differences in cost per item between the most and least deprived quintiles are most pronounced in BNF Chapter 1 - Gastro-Intestinal System. In that case, the ingredient cost per item for the least deprived quintile is 32.0% greater than that for the most deprived quintile.

Figure 5.6: Cost per item by deprivation quintile for the most dispensed BNF chapters, 2024/25

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5.7 UK Comparisons note 26

In 2023/24, Northern Ireland had the second-highest level of dispensing in the UK at 23.8 items per person, 3.4 less than Wales (27.2). Both had notably higher level of dispensing per head of the population than either Scotland or England. These figures may, however, not be directly comparable due to the differing prescribing practices across each region as described in Section 3.2.

Northern Ireland had the highest ingredient cost per person in the UK in 2023/24, a 3.0% increase on the previous year. Ingredient costs per person increased on the previous year in in all four nations, with the lowest cost per person of £191.31 observed in England in 2023/24. A summary of the comparative figures for 2023/24 is provided in Figure 5.7 below.

Figure 5.7: Prescription items and ingredient cost per person across the UK, 2023/24

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Note 22

All geographic breakdowns in this chapter are based on patient location.

Note 23

The Northern Ireland and sub-Northern Ireland figures have been calculated using 2022 mid-year estimates due to the unavailability of 2023 (at LCG level) or 2024 mid-year estimates at the time of production.

Note 24

Patient postcode information was available for 94.7% of all items dispensed in 2024/25. Data is unavailable for the remaining prescriptions due to the limitations of the prescription scanning process used by FPS.

Note 25

Northern Ireland Multiple Deprivation Measure 2017 (NIMDM2017)

Note 26

Due to Scotland’s publication schedule, the 2024/25 Prescription Cost Analysis was unavailable at the time of creation. These figures relate to 2023/24, the latest year with published statistics for all four nations. To enable a like-for-like comparison with Northern Ireland, population based statistics have been calculated using the 2022 mid-year estimates for England, Scotland and Wales (see note 23).

6. Detailed Analysis

This section provides more detailed dispensing statistics for classes of medication which have been identified as being of particular interest to publication users.

6.1 Background Information

This section contains detailed patient statistics relating to the dispensing of anti-depressants, opioid analgesics, diabetes medication & products, oral anticoagulants and antibiotics in Northern Ireland during 2024/25.

The figures in this section are based on matching patient attributes to prescription records. This process and its limitations were previously outlined in section 5.1. Due to these limitations, statistics can only be provided for 2019/20 onwards.

Although not all prescriptions can be matched, it is likely that the available data presents an accurate picture of individuals receiving medications on a long-term basis. Such individuals generally receive multiple prescriptions over a year and their information can be retrieved if any of these prescriptions are successfully matched. The exception to this is with antibiotics, which would typically be prescribed for a one-off course for the duration of treatment.

It should be noted that it is not possible to infer the medical conditions for which patients are being treated on the basis of the medications dispensed to them. Many medications are used to treat multiple conditions. For example, anti-depressants are often used in the treatment of anxiety disorders. However, in the absence of a proper diagnosis, medications can often serve as a useful proxy.

6.2 Anti-depressants

Anti-depressants were dispensed to 398,448 people in Northern Ireland in 2024/25, over one fifth of the total population and an increase of 1.5% compared with 2023/24. There was significant variation in the proportion of individuals receiving anti-depressants among different groups within the population. Over one quarter of females (25.9%) in Northern Ireland received anti-depressants during the year compared with 15.7% of males.

Figure 6.1 below shows that females have accounted for the majority of individuals who receive anti-depressants in Northern Ireland since 2019/20.

Figure 6.1: Individuals receiving anti-depressants by gender, 2019/20 to 2024/25 (R)

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The variation in the proportion of individuals receiving anti-depressants extends into different age/gender segments of the population. The lowest proportion (0.5%) was observed among males aged under 18. The highest (39.6%) was seen among females aged between 45 and 64. The proportions for each segment are provided in Figure 6.2 below.

Figure 6.2: Proportion of population receiving anti-depressants by age and gender, 2024/25

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At Local Government District (LGD) level, Derry City and Strabane had the highest proportion of the population receiving anti-depressants in 2024/25 at 25.0%. It was closely followed by Belfast at 23.2%.

The lowest levels were seen in Mid Ulster, where 17.0% of the population received anti-depressants in 2024/25 and Fermanagh and Omagh, where they were dispensed to 18.9% of the population.

Despite this variation, the proportion of the population who had been dispensed anti-depressants rose in all LGDs in 2024/25. A full breakdown of anti-depressant dispensing at LGD level is provided in Figure 6.3 below.

Figure 6.3: Proportion of the population in receipt of anti-depressants by LGD, 2024/25

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An analysis of anti-depressant dispensing by deprivation quintile showed that the proportion of the population receiving such medications was greatest in areas with higher levels of deprivation. In the most deprived quintile, anti-depressants were dispensed to 27.3% of the population, which was 56.0% higher than in the least deprived areas (17.5%). The full figures are shown in Figure 6.4 below.

Figure 6.4: Number of individuals receiving anti-depressants by deprivation quintile, 2024/25.

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6.3 Diabetes medication and products

Diabetes medication and products were dispensed to 124,381 people in 2024/25, which was an increase of 5.9% on the previous year. Overall, 6.5% of Northern Ireland’s population received diabetes medication and products during the year.

As shown in Figure 6.5, males continued to represent the majority (56.8%) of individuals who received such items in 2024/25. This meant that these medications were dispensed to 7.5% of the male population in 2024/25. The equivalent figure for females was 5.5%.

Figure 6.5: Individuals receiving diabetes medication & products by gender, 2019/20 to 2024/25 (R)

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The proportion of the population receiving diabetes medication and products generally increases with age, with the exception of the 85+ age cohort, which reduces slightly but is still significantly higher than the younger age groups. At one extreme, just 0.4% of individuals aged under 18 received such items. At the other, these items were dispensed to 26.7% of males aged between 75 and 84. As shown in Figure 6.6 below, after the age of 44 a higher proportion of males than females received diabetes medication.

Figure 6.6: Proportion of population receiving diabetes medication & products by age and gender, 2024/25

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The proportion of the population who were dispensed diabetes medication and products rose in all LGDs in 2024/25. There remained, however, some geographic variation. Ards and North Down had the highest rate of dispensing at 7.3% of the population in 2024/25. At the other end of the scale, the equivalent rate for Mid Ulster was 5.8%. A breakdown of dispensing by LGD is provided in Figure 6.7 below.

Figure 6.7: Proportion of the population receiving diabetes medication & products by LGD, 2024/25

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An analysis of dispensing by deprivation quintile showed that the proportion of the population receiving diabetes medication and products was greatest in areas of higher deprivation. In the most deprived quintile, these items were dispensed to 7.4% of the population. The equivalent figure in the least deprived areas was 5.8%. A breakdown of dispensing by deprivation quintile is provided below.

Figure 6.8: Number of individuals receiving diabetes medication & products by deprivation quintile, 2024/25.

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6.4 Opioid Analgesics

Opioid analgesics were dispensed to 97,624 people in 2024/25, which was a decrease of 2.4% on the previous year and a 7.8% decrease since 2019/20. Overall, the proportion of the population receiving opioid analgesics fell slightly to 5.1% in 2024/25.

As shown in Figure 6.9 below, females accounted for 60.7% of individuals who received opioid analgesics, equating to 6.1% of the female population during 2024/25. The equivalent figure for males was 4.1%.

Figure 6.9: Individuals receiving opioid analgesics by gender, 2019/20 to 2024/25 (R)

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The use of opioid analgesics increases with age, as can be seen in Figure 6.10 below. While the overall rate of all age groups aged below 45 remains under 5%, this more than doubles for both males and females in the 45-64 age group. This rate continues to increase sharply, with over one quarter of females aged 85 and over dispensed opioid analgesics in 2024/25.

Figure 6.10: Proportion of population receiving opioid analgesics by age and gender, 2024/25

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There was some local variation in terms of opioid analgesics at LGD level. Due to the link between opioid analgesic dispensing and age, it is probable that these differences are, in part, influenced by local variations in population structure.

The proportion of the population in receipt of opioid analgesics fell or remained static in all LGDs in 2024/25. Ards and North Down had the highest proportion observed with 6.1% of its population receiving an opioid analgesic. By contrast, the equivalent figure for Mid Ulster was 3.9%. A full breakdown of the figures for opioid analgesics dispensing at LGD level is provided in Figure 6.11 below.

Figure 6.11: Proportion of the population receiving opioid analgesics by LGD, 2024/25

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An analysis of dispensing by deprivation quintile showed that the proportion of the population receiving opioid analgesics was highest in more deprived areas. In the most deprived quintile, these items were dispensed to 6.4% of the population, while in the least deprived areas, the equivalent figure was 4.2%. A breakdown of dispensing by deprivation quintile is provided below.

Figure 6.12: Number of individuals receiving opioid analgesics by deprivation quintile, 2024/25.

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6.5 Oral Anticoagulants

Oral anticoagulants were dispensed to 64,000 people in 2024/25, which was an increase of 3.8% on the previous year. Overall, the proportion of the population receiving oral anticoagulants was 3.3% in 2024/25.

As shown in Figure 6.13 below, males accounted for 56.6% of individuals who received oral anticoagulants in 2024/25. This meant that those medications were dispensed to 3.9% of the male population. The equivalent figure for females was 2.9%.

Figure 6.13: Individuals receiving oral anticoagulants by gender, 2019/20 to 2024/25 (R)

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There is a strong correlation between increasing age and dispensing of oral anticoagulants, as can be seen in Figure 6.14 below. The proportion of individuals receiving such medications was less than 1% in all age groups under the age of 45. The level of dispensing rose sharply from the age of 65 with the highest level of 37.2% observed among males aged 85 and over.

Figure 6.14: Proportion of population receiving oral anticoagulants by age and gender, 2024/25

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There was some local variation in the dispensing of oral anticoagulants at LGD level. Due to the link between anticoagulant dispensing and age, it is possible that these differences are, in part, influenced by local variations in population structure.

The proportion of the population in receipt of oral anticoagulants rose in all LGDs in 2024/25. Ards and North Down had the highest proportion observed with 4.1% of its population receiving an anticoagulant. By contrast, the equivalent figure for Belfast was 2.9%. A full breakdown of the figures for anticoagulant dispensing at LGD level is provided below.

Figure 6.15: Number of individuals receiving oral anticoagulants by LGD, 2024/25

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An analysis of dispensing by deprivation quintile showed no consistent trend associated with deprivation in the proportion of the population receiving oral anticoagulants. There was little variation between the five quintiles, as can be seen in Figure 6.16. The highest proportion was, however, observed in the least deprived areas (3.6%), while the lowest proportion (3.1%) was observed in the most deprived quintile. Again, this could be associated with age structure differences bewtween the qunitles.

Figure 6.16: Number of individuals receiving oral anticoagulants by deprivation quintile, 2024/25

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6.6 Antibiotics

Antibiotics were dispensed to 686,660 people in 2024/25, which was a decrease of 5.5% on the previous year. Overall, 35.9% of Northern Ireland’s population received an antibiotic during the year.

As shown in Figure 6.17 below, females accounted for 59.4% of individuals who received antibiotics. This equated to 42.0% of the female population during 2024/25. The equivalent figure for males was 29.6%.

Figure 6.17: Individuals receiving antibiotics by gender, 2019/20 to 2024/25 (R)

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There was also considerable variation in the proportion of individuals receiving antibiotics across age/gender groups. Over two thirds (67.7%) of females aged 85 and over were dispensed antibiotics in 2024/25. The lowest proportion (22.6%) was seen in males aged between 15 and 24. A full breakdown is provided in Figure 6.18 below.

Figure 6.18: Proportion of population receiving antibiotics by age and gender, 2024/25

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There was some variation in the dispensing of antibiotics at LGD level which will, to some extent, be associated with the differing LGD age profiles. The proportion of the population in receipt of antibiotics fell in all LGDs in 2024/25. Causeway Coast and Glens had the highest proportion with 40.9% of its population receiving an antibiotic. By contrast, the lowest proportion of 31.6% was observed in Ards and North Down. A full breakdown of the figures for antibiotic dispensing at LGD level is provided in Figure 6.19 below.

Figure 6.19: Number of individuals receiving antibiotics by LGD, 2024/25

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An analysis of dispensing by deprivation quintile showed that the proportion of the population receiving antibiotics was highest in more deprived areas. In the most deprived quintile, these items were dispensed to 39.2% of the population. In the least deprived areas, the equivalent figure was 32.2%. A breakdown of dispensing by deprivation quintile is provided below.

Figure 6.20: Number of individuals receiving antibiotics by deprivation quintile, 2024/25

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Publication Notes

1. Dispensing Contractors

There are three types of dispensing contractors featured in this report. These are:

Community Pharmacy

Community pharmacies provide various healthcare services to local communities in Northern Ireland. Although the dispensing of prescriptions is often seen as the primary part of their role, they do provide a range of other services such as Health Promotion, Vaccinations, Stop Smoking and a Pharmacy First service.

Dispensing Doctor

Dispensing doctors are general practitioners (GPs) who provide primary healthcare to patients who have difficulty getting access to a community pharmacy. Under current arrangements such patients can be put onto a dispensing patients’ list if they meet the following criteria:

• A patient lives more than five kilometres away from a community pharmacy; and
• The GP practice where a patient normally attends is more than one kilometre from a community pharmacy.

Appliance Supplier

Appliance suppliers are authorised to dispense appliance devices (those listed under part III of the NI Drug Tariff) such as stoma appliances or lymphoedema garments.

2. Prescriptions

Prescription forms for prescriptions are submitted on a monthly basis to the Business Services Organisation (BSO) for payment by community pharmacies, appliance contractors and dispensing doctors. Data on secondary care prescribing and private prescriptions are not held by the Business Services Organisation.

In 2024/25, 26.1 million pharmacy forms were processed and paid by BSO. They are prescribed by GPs and other non-medical prescribers such as community nurses, supplementary prescribers, dentists and a small proportion from consultants working in the community.

In addition, prescriptions written in other parts of the UK but dispensed in Northern Ireland are also included. The data will include prescriptions that have been ordered on stock orders, hospice invoices and pharmacy vouchers.

Only prescriptions that are subsequently dispensed are included in the data - for example, if a patient does not take a prescription to the pharmacy for dispensing, then there is no information about that prescription in our source dataset.

3. Prescription Items

A prescription item is a single supply of a medicine, dressing or appliance written on a prescription form.

If a prescription form includes three medicines it is usually counted as three prescription items. Item figures do not provide any indication of the length of treatment of quantity of medicine prescribed. Patients with a long-term condition usually get regular prescriptions.

It should also be noted that the Northern Ireland drug tariff includes Instalment or Multiple Dispensing where the pharmacy supplies part of the total quantity of a prescribed medicine at set intervals (e.g. weekly or daily) as requested by the GP or other authorised prescriber. Regardless of this method of dispensing the prescription item still only counts as one item.

A similar practice is available in Scotland whilst the instalment dispensing of controlled drugs in England and Wales is facilitated through prescription items of lesser quantities being prescribed more frequently.

Further information on Instalment/Multiple Dispensing in Northern Ireland can be found on Page 10 of the latest version of the NI Drug Tariff

4. Ingredient Cost

This is the basic cost of a drug as used in primary care. This is the cost at list price excluding VAT, i.e. the price listed in the national Drug Tariff or in standard price lists and is not necessarily the price that has been paid.

It does not consider any contract prices or discounts, dispensing costs or fees, so the actual cost so the health service will be different.

In other parts of the UK the equivalent is called the Net Ingredient Cost (NIC) and is used in Prescription Services reports and other analyses, as it standardises prescribing costs nationally and allows comparisons of data from different sources.

5. British National Formulary (BNF)

From BNF Edition 70 onwards, the British National Formulary moved to a disease-based classification of drugs rather than a drug-based classification.

The Family Practitioner Services Payment System required the drug-based classification to ensure the accurate reimbursement of drugs to community pharmacists. All statistics on BNF chapters are therefore based on pseudo BNF chapters as of Edition 69. This is consistent with the NHS Business Services Authority method of reporting.

6. Patient Information and Data Revision

Patient information is obtained from prescriptions that have been dispensed in Northern Ireland and subsequently submitted for payment to BSO. This does not include private prescriptions. Patient details are only automatically captured and recorded on prescription forms that can be scanned through the barcode on the form. The captured patient HCN is then used to link to patient registration records on the National Health Application and Infrastructure Services (NHAIS) system where information on patient age, gender and location can be assigned. This demographic information is captured based on the month the prescription was submitted for payment to BSO. Demographic information can only be obtained where a valid HCN can be matched on NHAIS.

In the past, BSO had experienced a reduction in scan rates resulting in around 25% of prescription items not having attributed patient information in 2017/18 and 2018/19. This has since improved with scan rates at around 90% in more recent years.

The use of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology has enabled the capture of additional patient information previously unknown as a result of unsuccessfully scanned prescriptions (see section 3 user guidance for more information). This technology has been utilised to identify patient information and assign demographic information over the entire time period covered (with the exception of January 2020, for which no prescription images are available), causing a revision to the back series of affected tables beginning in 2017/18. Consequently, the figures presented in this latest report will differ from historic information in previous publications and should not be used for comparison purposes. In addition where a revised series begins before 2017/18, earlier years may not be comparable, reflecting a break in the series. Each table affected by this revision will be denoted by (R) in the title.

In terms of allocating prescription items to geographical areas, the largest changes occur in 2017/18 and 2018/19, when the number of unknowns decreased by 58.3% and 52.1% respectively and the prescription scan rate had been at its lowest. At Local Commissioning Group Level the increase in prescription items ranged from 13.2% in the Southern LCG in 2018/19 to 22.9% in the Belfast LCG in 2017/18. Between 2019/20 and 2023/24 the reduction in unknowns ranged between 41.5% and 45.7%. For these years the increase in items ranged from 2.6% in the Southern LCG in 2022/23 to 7.3% in the Western LCG in 2019/20.

In terms of LGD, for 2017/18 and 2018/19, the increase in prescription items ranged from 11.1% in Mid Ulster in 2018/19 to 24.9% in Derry City and Strabane in 2017/18. Between 2019/20 and 2023/24, the increase in prescription items ranged from 1.9% in Mid Ulster in 2022/23 to 9.3% in Causeway Coast & Glens in the same year.

In terms of patient counts the total number of patients increased by between 0.6% and 0.8% for anti-depressants, diabetes medication/products and anticoagulants, between 1.1% and 1.4% for opioid analgesics and between 2.1% and 2.2% for antibiotics, with some further breakdowns showing a larger increase, and some smaller than the Northern Ireland count.

While the adoption of OCR software has enabled the capture of additional patient information, otherwise recorded as ‘Unknowns’ in the data, it has not been possible to match a valid HCN from every prescription and there may still be some prescriptions that were not able to be assigned demographic or geographical information. In 2024/25 the rate of valid HCNs captured using OCR software was 41.5% of unsuccessfully scanned prescriptions, improving the overall scan rate from 91.1% to 94.8%.

Further information on scan rates by geographical location can be found in the Background Quality Report.

Geographical location is assigned using patient address postcode information linked to NISRA’s Central Postcode Directory.

7. Population

NISRA population figures are used in this release.

At the time of creation, mid-year estimates were not available for 2023 (at LCG level) and 2024 for Northern Ireland. In 2024, NISRA published 2022 mid-year estimates for Northern Ireland and sub-Northern Ireland level geographies. Population based figures for 2022/23 have been revised to reflect this. For consistency within the 2023/24 and 2024/25 Northern Ireland and sub-Northern Ireland level calculations, the 2022 mid-year estimates were used, as this is a more accurate reflection of the current population than using the 2018-based population projections which were developed prior to the 2021 Census.

Technical Notes

Target Audience

The target audience for this publication has been defined as: the Department of Health, Chief Executives of HSC Trusts in Northern Ireland, health professionals, academics, HSC Stakeholders, the media and the general public.

Main usages

This publication contains accredited official statistics on community pharmacy and general pharmaceutical dispensing for the most recent financial year (and earlier years where available on a comparable basis).

They can be used to monitor trends in general pharmaceutical services over time and across Northern Ireland.

The information can be used to support decision making, inform policy, provide advice to ministers, answer a wide range of Assembly Questions and Freedom of Information requests, for national and local press articles and, where appropriate, for international comparison.

Data Source Information

The data has been primarily sourced from the Family Practitioner Service (FPS) Pharmacy Payment System. Resident population data has been sourced from official NISRA demographic statistics.

The Pharmacy Payment System enables BSO to make payments to pharmaceutical contractors for dispensing prescription items that have been prescribed in primary care (e.g. by General Practitioner, Nurse Practitioner, Dentist, Podiatrist) as well as through the Pharmacy First scheme available in a number of pharmacies.

Further information on this process can be found here on the FPS website.

Coverage

Data in this report are published by the financial year (1st April - 31st March) in which the dispensed prescriptions were reimbursed. Although the majority of prescriptions will have been reimbursed in the same month they were dispensed, there will be some that will lie outside this time frame.

Such cases will include prescriptions submitted for payment at the end of the previous financial year and exclude some prescriptions submitted towards the end of this reporting year which were not submitted for payment by March 2025

The data is based on prescriptions provided to FPS for reimbursement by community pharmacists, dispensing doctors and appliance suppliers. The information does not include prescribing in a secondary care or private setting e.g. medications received while in hospital.

Community pharmacy counts are taken at 31st March for each financial year.

Data Quality Summary

The Pharmacy Payment System is a business-critical payment system which is subject to period audit. The data quality is assessed as very good based on the low percentage of claims which have to be adjusted following payment.

As an administrative data system, there will inevitably be some manual entry errors and, even for automated processes, there may be errors within the claims submitted by primary care contractors.

The extensive validation that occurs prior to payments being made, coupled with the consistency and variance checks carried out during the compilation of this publication means that the data provides a good representation of FPS activity for the years covered by the report.

Further information can be found in the Background Quality Report and the Quality Assurance of Administrative Data Report.

National/International Comparisons

This publication contains comparisons between Northern Ireland and other regions of the United Kingdom. The comparative data is available from the following sources:

England:

Statistics on General Pharmaceutical Services

Prescription Cost Analysis

Wales:

Statistics on General Pharmaceutical Services

Prescription Cost Analysis

Scotland:

Statistics on General Pharmaceutical Services

Prescription Cost Analysis

Publication Information

Family Practitioner Services

Family Practitioner Services (FPS) is part of the BSO’s Operations Directorate. It provides a range of essential services to Health and Social Care organisations, primary care contractors and patients.

FPS calculates payments to health professionals in the dental, pharmacy, general practice and ophthalmic sectors throughout Northern Ireland. It also maintains the central register of patients registered with GP practices in Northern Ireland, issuing medical cards and processing changes such as name, address and doctor.

It provides professional advice, support and information to customers and members of the public and maintains the pharmaceutical, dental and the Northern Ireland Primary Medical Performers lists. FPS also provides the call and recall services for cervical and bowel screening in Northern Ireland.

About this publication

This report has been produced by independent statisticians within the FPS Information Unit. They are on secondment from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA). This publication has been compiled in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics.

Next edition

This publication is issued annually. It is expected that the next edition shall be published in June 2026. In the interim, quarterly tables are published separately here. The quarterly figures are provisional until the annual publication for that year issues, at which point they are finalised. The release calendar for future statistical publications is available on the BSO website here.

Feedback

Feedback is welcome and if you have requests for further statistical breakdowns please email BSO_PrimaryCare.Statistics@hscni.net

This statistical bulletin and others published by FPS Information Unit within BSO are available to view and download from the BSO internet site.

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