New data reveals substantial variation in patients' access to medicines across England

Analysis showing the extent to which the UK National Health Service (NHS) is prescribing National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommended medicines has been published today.

The Health and Social Care Information Centre’s (HSCIC) Use of NICE-appraised medicines in the NHS in England – 2012, experimental statistics reports on the use of medicines that have been appraised by NICE. It is the fourth in a series of reports which covers five years in total. It also contains additional analysis to allow the inclusion of medicines for which an expected level of usage cannot be calculated, for instance because it is not possible to reliably estimate the number of eligible patients or average dose.

The report contains an analysis which compares expected with actual use. It showed usage to be lower than expected for four groups of medicines, higher than expected for two and around the expected level for three. However, use of all these groups of medicines in the NHS has risen over the last few years. When interpreting these figures it is important to note that higher or lower usage may occur for a variety of reasons and is not necessarily a sign of ‘under’ or ‘over’ prescribing.