Pharmaceutical Facts and Figures

The annual medicines expenditure in Northern Ireland is an estimated £500 million around 20% of which is incurred in hospitals and 80% in Primary Care.

In Primary Care, health service prescriptions written by GPs, Dentists and Non-Medical Prescribers are dispensed by Community Pharmacies, Dispensing Doctors or supplied by registered Appliance Contractors.

In 2010 over 35 million prescription items were dispensed in primary care at a cost of £440million.

Pharmaceutical Statistics

HSC Business Services Organisation provides Pharmaceutical Statistics

which show:

The counts and costs of prescriptions.
The number of Community Pharmacies, Pharmacists, Dispensing Doctors and Appliance Contractors in Northern Ireland.
Prescription Cost Analysis Reports.

The following information is extracted from the Pharmaceutical Statistics

website where more information, including historical data is available.

Number of Community Pharmacies in Northern Ireland

Date	Number of Community Pharmacies
October 2008	520
October 2009	524
October 2010	529

Number and Cost of Prescriptions dispensed in Northern Ireland

Year	Prescription Items Dispensed	Ingredient Cost £
2008	31,769,103	£395,076,670
2009	33,812,070	£416,254,407
2010	35,837,332	£440,263,267

Prescribing Costs per head of population in Northern Ireland

Year	Costs per head of population
2008	£247
2009	£261