Key Summary
- Prescription spending per person varies more than threefold across England.
- NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ranks highest (£379.82 per person), followed by Herefordshire and Worcestershire (£347.81) and West Yorkshire (£292.42).
- NHS West Yorkshire recorded the highest total prescription bill in England at £791.8 million.
Prescription expenditure across NHS Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) in England varies by more than 300% per person, with high-cost regional areas spending more than three times as much as parts of London, according to new research.
An analysis conducted by Cured Pharmacy using NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) data compared regional prescription costs against population figures to identify spending patterns across England’s 42 ICBs.
Highest per-person spenders
NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICB leads the country in prescription spend per head, allocating £379.82 per person in a year.
Despite recording a moderate volume of 23.4 million prescribed items, its total expenditure reached £401.4 million across a population of 1.05 million.
This reflects the highest average cost per item nationwide at £17.12.
NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire ranked second, spending £347.81 per person.
Although it recorded one of the lowest volumes of prescribed items at 17 million, total spending stood at £291.3 million across a population of 837,510, resulting in an average cost per item of £17.11.
NHS West Yorkshire placed third, with a per-head expenditure of £292.42. West Yorkshire recorded both the highest total prescription expenditure in England (£791.8 million) and the highest volume of prescriptions per person at 35.5 items.
Rounding out the top five were NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire (£243.79 per person; £313.1 million total) and NHS Cheshire and Merseyside (£218.32 per person; £612 million total).
London records lowest spending
At the opposite end of the spectrum, London ICBs recorded the lowest per-person prescription expenditure in England.
All five lowest-spending ICBs are located in the capital, with per-head costs ranging from £115.74 to £126.24:
- NHS North West London spent the least in the country at £115.74 per person.
- NHS South East London, NHS South West London, NHS North Central London, and NHS North East London occupied the remaining bottom positions.
What drives the gap?
Addressing the findings, Tarun Kumar, Co-Founder and Superintendent Pharmacist of Cured Pharmacy, highlighted that individual drug costs rather than prescription volume drive the spending gap.
Tarun Kumar said: “What stands out is the enormous variation across England. Cambridgeshire and Peterborough spends more than three times per person what North West London does, and that gap is largely driven by the cost of individual prescriptions rather than the volume.
“This could reflect differences in the types of medications being prescribed, such as higher proportions of specialist or newer treatments in certain areas.”
