Diabetes prescriptions now account for 8.4 per cent of the entire NHS net bill for primary care drugs in England, a new report from The NHS Information Centre shows today.

The percentage increase in the total cost of prescriptions for the condition was four times that in prescription cost overall between 2005/6 and 2010/11 – taking the cost of diabetes prescribing to £725 million in 2010/11.

Prescribing for Diabetes; England, 2005/06 – 2010/11, also shows that in the same period the number of diabetes prescription items increased by 41 per cent to reach 38.3 million items – meaning that one in every 25 prescription items written is now for diabetes.

The report examines prescribing trends between 2005/06 and 2010/11 for medicines used in the treatment of diabetes, and shows that in primary care in England, in 2010/11:

• Diabetes prescribing accounted for 8.4 per cent of the entire NHS net prescription bill; compared to 6.6 per cent in 2005/06.
• The total net ingredient cost of diabetes prescriptions was £725 million; a 41.1 per cent (£211 million) rise on 2005/06 (£513 million). This compares to a 10.6 per cent increase in the drugs bill overall.
• The total number of prescription items dispensed to treat diabetes was 38.3 million, a 7.8 per cent rise on the previous year (2.8 million) and a 41.2 per cent rise on 2005/06 (27.1 million).
• The section covering diabetes drugs within the British National Formulary carried the highest cost of any section; and also saw the biggest annual rise in cost of any section on 2009/10.

The report also shows that about two in three prescription items dispensed for diabetes are anti-diabetic drugs (25.9 million items), which help control the body's own production and use of insulin. The second biggest group of items prescribed are insulins; which a patient injects when their body cannot produce a sufficient amount of insulin on its own.

NHS Information Centre chief executive Tim Straughan said: “Today's report paints a picture of an ever–increasing drugs bill to cope with the demands of society triggered by diabetes. The portion of the NHS drugs bill accounted for by diabetes drugs continues to rise and is now at 8.4 per cent.

“This information will help people and health professionals see the impact that caring for diabetes has on NHS prescribing; and support the NHS in planning for how to best address the condition moving forward.”

This report can be accessed at www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/prescribingfordiabetes05-11

ENDS

Notes to editors

1. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care (The NHS IC) is England's authoritative, central, independent source of health and social care information. It works with a wide range of health and social care providers nationwide to provide the facts and figures that help the NHS and social services run effectively. Its role is to collect data, analyse it and convert it into useful information which helps providers improve their services and supports academics, researcher, regulators and policymakers in their work. The NHS IC also produces a wide range of statistical publications each year across a number of areas including: primary care, health and lifestyles, screening, hospital care, population and geography, social care and workforce and pay statistics.
2. The prescribing information used in this report was obtained from the Prescribing Analysis and CosT tool (PACT) system, which covers prescriptions prescribed by GPs, nurses, pharmacists and others in England and dispensed in the community in the UK. For data at PCT level, prescriptions written by a prescriber located in a particular PCT but dispensed outside that PCT will be included in the PCT in which the prescriber is based. Prescriptions written in England but dispensed outside England are included. Prescriptions written in hospitals /clinics that are dispensed in the community, prescriptions dispensed in hospitals, dental prescribing and private prescriptions are not included in PACT data.
3. The bulletin shows the headline cost (net ingredient cost) of medicines before the deduction of discount or charges paid and therefore does not represent the actual cost to the NHS, however the overall messages are very similar. Details of all items dispensed, including costs, were published in The NHS Information Centre's Prescription Cost Analysis (PCA) publication on April 2011.
4. Prescribers write prescriptions on a prescription form. Each single item written on the form is counted as a prescription item.
5. 2005/6 is used as a comparison year to offer a five year time series of trends in diabetes prescribing. This data has been extracted for six years in total.
6. In this bulletin, prevalence of diabetes is calculated, consistently with previous years, by dividing the number of patients registered as having diabetes by the total number of patients on a Primary Care Trust's register. The register does not include patients under 17. Note that the 2008/9 and 2009/10 QOF bulletin prevalence figures were adjusted using an estimate of the population aged 17 and above and is not therefore directly comparable.
7. According to Quality and Outcomes Framework (the QOF), 2.3 million people in England aged 17 and over had Diabetes in 2009/10 (figures for 2010/11 are due to be published in October 2011). Diabetes comprises a group of disorders with many different causes, all of which are characterised by a raised blood glucose level. This is the result of a lack of the hormone insulin and/or an inability to respond to insulin. Insulin in the blood, produced by the pancreas, is the hormone which ensures that glucose (sugar) obtained from food can be used by the body. There are two main types of diabetes: Type 1 diabetes and Type 2 diabetes.In people with Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas is no longer able to produce insulin because the insulin-producing cells (beta-cells) have been destroyed by the body's immune system. Without insulin to move glucose from the bloodstream to the body's cells, glucose builds up in the blood and is passed out of the body in the urine. In people with Type 2 diabetes, the beta-cells are not able to produce enough insulin for the body's needs. The majority of people with Type 2 diabetes also have some degree of insulin resistance, where the cells in the body are not able to respond to the insulin that is produced.
8. The costs in the report are not adjusted for inflation but are as at the time.
9. The British National Formulary (BNF) is a joint publication of the British Medical Association and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. It is published biannually under the authority of a Joint Formulary Committee which comprises representatives of the two professional bodies and of the UK Health Departments The BNF aims to provide prescribers, pharmacists and other healthcare professionals with sound up-to-date information about the use of medicines. The BNF includes key information on the selection, prescribing, dispensing and administration of medicines. It is split into chapters by therapeutic class of drug. These notes are divided into 15 chapters, each of which is related to a particular system of the body or to an aspect of medical care. Each chapter is then divided into sections
10. For media enquires please call 0845 257 6990 or contact mediaenquiries@ic.nhs.uk