Prescribing for Diabetes in England 2008/09 - 2018/19

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. It is not necessarily the price the NHS paid. It does not take into account any contract prices or discounts, dispensing costs, fees or prescription charges income, so the amount the NHS paid will be different.

The British National Formulary (BNF) is a therapeutic classification structure that provides information for clinicians. It is widely used in NHS IT systems and NHS Digital official publications to allow comparisons between drug groups.

The format of the BNF was changed from Edition 70 (September 2015 - March 2016) to make it more user friendly. However, the NHS Business Services Authority (BSA), who process dispensed prescription forms and collect prescribing data, continue to use the classification structure prior to Edition 70. NHS Prescription Services, within the NHS BSA, have created pseudo BNF chapters 18 to 23 for items not included in BNF chapters 1 to 15 (mainly dressings and appliances). Further information on classifications and pseudo chapters can be found on the NHS BSA website. 

Prescribing for diabetes is captured in Chapter 6.1 'Drugs used in diabetes'. Further information on diabetes medications can be found in Background and scope.

Prescriptions are prescribed either by a paper prescription form or via an Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) message. Each single item prescribed is counted as a prescription item.

The objective of the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) is to improve the quality of care patients are given by rewarding practices for high quality care, based on a number of indicators across a range of key areas of clinical care and public health. Participation in QOF is voluntary, though participation rates are very high at 95.1% of General Practices in England.