Every dataset. What it is. What it isn't.
This page exists because the worst version of a data product is one that quietly buries its limits. DoseTrend started on two NHSBSA datasets. It now joins about fifteen published sources, nearly all under the Open Government Licence. Here is what each group gives us, in plain English, and what it doesn't.
Every item dispensed against a GP prescription in England, by month, by practice, by BNF code. NHSBSA publishes each month about eight weeks after it ends. The backbone of DoseTrend's primary-care view.
What it gives us: items, quantity, NIC and actual cost at practice granularity, from November 2020 for every molecule (from 2014 for the original eight). We roll it up to PCN, ICB and national.
What it doesn't: hospital dispensing, manufacturer, brand share for generics, patient counts, indication.
Hospital dispensing across all English NHS trusts, by month, by VMP or VMPP. Published by NHSBSA on the same timetable as EPD, give or take. Uses dm+d, not BNF, so it needs joining to EPD before it means anything to a commercial team.
What it gives us: hospital volume and cost, national and trust-level, for every molecule we cover.
What it doesn't: ward-level, patient-level, procured-but-not-dispensed stock. Trust names change; we track the changes so your charts don't lie.
NHS England's Organisation Data Service tells us which practice belongs to which ICB this month (and next month, when they redraw the boundaries). The dictionary of medicines and devices (dm+d, from NHSBSA via TRUD, weekly) maps every product code to a real medicine, and tells us every supplier, pack, GTIN and list price on the market.
Why it matters: ICBs merge, split and rename constantly. Without ODS versioning, a "year-on-year" chart is meaningless. We version it, so ours isn't.
NHSBSA's official statistics on Medicines Used in Mental Health, Dependency-Forming Medicines and Prescribing for Diabetes count identified patients per medicine, by financial year and month, from 2016/17.
What it gives us: how many people, and items per person, for about 30 molecules. What it doesn't: the other hundred-odd. NHSBSA doesn't publish patient counts for them, so we don't estimate one.
The Drug Tariff (NHSBSA), what English trusts actually paid per generic pack (eMIT, from the Department of Health and Social Care), every price concession since January 2019 (NHSBSA), and list prices from dm+d.
What it doesn't: any net or contract price. eMIT gives an average and a spread, not the prices behind them, so we show it as a range and say how wide it is. Concessions are a reimbursement decision, not proof a medicine was unavailable.
NHS England's generics framework workplan (when each line's framework ends) and its award schedules: who won each NPC line in each buying group, generics and branded. On Find a Tender for Procurement Act awards, and on Contracts Finder back to 2016, the oldest let by the Department of Health and Social Care and its Commercial Medicines Unit.
What it doesn't: prices, which NHS England redacts, or what a holder actually sold. An award names the contracted source for a buying group; trusts can buy off contract. Nobody publishes when a holder hands a line back, so we show when a line was re-tendered ahead of time and say that is the visible sign.
Dated events from NICE technology appraisals, MHRA Drug Safety Update and marketing authorisations, CAS supply alerts, NHSBSA serious shortage protocols, MHRA parallel import licences, the DHSC list of medicines that cannot be exported, and, from abroad, US FDA recalls and shortages (openFDA), EU shortages, generic and biosimilar authorisations, referrals and safety letters (European Medicines Agency), EU GMP non-compliance statements (EudraGMDP) and FDA warning letters.
How: a person reviews each event before it reaches you, and every event quotes its source and links to it. An event abroad is labelled as such; it doesn't mean UK supply is affected.
NHSBSA's Prescription Cost Analysis: every presentation dispensed in the community, by month, with the dispenser type (community pharmacy, dispensing doctor, appliance contractor) and the pharmacy service behind it, such as Pharmacy First.
Why it matters: supplies under a pharmacy service never appear in GP prescribing data. For some molecules, nitrofurantoin for one, that is a real share of the volume.
Public Health Scotland, NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership and the Business Services Organisation in Northern Ireland publish their own prescribing data. We carry national totals for each, and Scotland and Wales by health board.
We map every EPD BNF code to the dm+d VMP used by SCMD, so a single molecule shows up as one line whether it was prescribed in a GP surgery or dispensed by a hospital pharmacy. Where the mapping is ambiguous, roughly 3% of items, we flag it in the methodology footnote of the chart, not in a hidden appendix.
The limits, in one paragraph.
No manufacturer-level brand share for generics. Patient counts only where NHSBSA publishes them, for about 30 molecules. No private prescribing. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are there as national totals, and Scotland and Wales by health board, but each nation codes and counts differently, so read them per nation rather than adding them up into a UK figure. Practice-level detail, hospital data and the ICB maps are England only. No real time: each month arrives about eight weeks after it ends. If any of these are dealbreakers, say so in your application and we'll tell you to save your money.
Within 48 hours of each release.
We check NHSBSA every hour. When a month is published, every DoseTrend dashboard has it within 48 hours, and the briefing PDF lands on the first working day after. Signals arrive as each source publishes them, dm+d every week. If we miss, we say so on the status page before you notice.