Medical prescription numbers and costs (FOI)

Request

A

Please could you provide me with the number of prescriptions per month from January 2018 until January 2021 for the medicines listed below?

B

Please could you provide me with the total amount spent by the Government of Jersey (GOJ) for each of the medicines listed below in 2018, 2019 and 2020 and the amount of people that was prescribed them over the same year?

Chronic Pain (inclusive of opioids):

Buprenorphine patches

Fentanyl patches

Oxycodone caps

Oxycodone tabs + MR tabs

Oxycodone+naloxone (Targinact)

Tramadol caps + MR caps

Pregabalin

Gabapentin (for pain)

Intractable nausea and vomiting:

Ondansetron

Spasticity:

Baclofen

Benzos: including eg Diazepam, Clonazepam

Anxiety:

SSRIs (eg sertraline, fluoxetine)

SNRIs (eg venlafaxine, duloxetine)

Pregabalin

Benzos: eg Diazepam, Lorazepam

Sleeping:

Zolpidem

Zopiclone

Response

A and B

The spreadsheet attached is in respect of medicines prescribed in primary care, excluding any prescriptions and spend generated by hospital treatment and clinics:

HIF prescription data as at 31 March 2021

Community dispensing data does not include information on the condition the medicine seeks to treat therefore the reason why the medicines were dispensed such as sleeping issues or chronic pain cannot be deduced. Also, the number of individuals who received the medicine is not retained.

The attached Health and Community Services (HCS) Medications spreadsheet is for quantities of the listed medicines supplied by HCS in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021:

HCS Medications 2018 - 2021 with total costs

Please also note the following:

• it is not possible to provide numbers of prescriptions from our pharmacy system for a specific drug. The information provided is the total number of dose units supplied ie number of tablets, injections, millilitres and so on

• it is not possible to provide the quantity of medicine supplied for different indications. We do not hold this information. The information provided is the total quantity provided for all indications

• it is not possible to provide the cost for each individual medicine, as having both the cost and volume would enable calculation of confidential contract prices for each medicines. The information provided includes the total cost for each year of all of the medicines listed. Article 33 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied

The above and attached spreadsheet related to the medicines supplied from Heath and Community Services and does not include any via primary care.

Article 33 (b) -Commercial Interests allows an authority to refuse a request for information where its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of a person (including the scheduled public authority holding the information).

Whilst we accept that the public may have an interest in the value of Government of Jersey contracts, we believe the exact contract values are commercially sensitive and that the release of this data could affect the negotiation of future contract values.

Article Applied

Article 33 (b) - Commercial Interests

Information is qualified exempt information if –

(b) its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of a person (including the scheduled public authority holding the information).