The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) publishes one of the most comprehensive datasets about community pharmacy in England. It records every NHS prescription dispensed, every advanced service delivered, and the associated payments — across more than 13,000 pharmacies.
PharmSee uses this data as its primary source for pharmacy analytics. But like all administrative datasets, NHSBSA data has important limitations. Understanding what it captures — and what it leaves out — is essential for anyone using pharmacy performance numbers to make decisions.
What the data includes
NHSBSA dispensing data covers:
Prescription items dispensed. Every NHS prescription item processed by a community pharmacy is recorded, along with the payment due to the pharmacy. PharmSee's database contains over 5.3 million dispensing records spanning 35 months of history across 13,147 pharmacies.
Revenue from NHS services. At the standard NHS dispensing fee of £1.29 per item (2025 rate), item counts translate directly into dispensing revenue estimates. A pharmacy dispensing 5,000 items per month generates approximately £6,450 monthly from the dispensing fee alone.
Advanced services. The New Medicine Service (NMS, £31.82 per consultation), Pharmacy First consultations (£15.00), flu vaccinations (£11.50), and other commissioned services are recorded separately.
Contractor information. Each pharmacy has a unique contractor code (e.g. FKX65, FGJ83) linked to the NHS Digital register, which records the trading name, address, and parent organisation.
What the data tells you
For pharmacies:
| Metric | What it reveals | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Items per month | Prescription volume — a proxy for footfall and demand | A busy urban pharmacy may dispense 8,000–12,000 items/month |
| Revenue trend | Whether a pharmacy's NHS income is growing or declining | Useful for benchmarking against local peers |
| Service uptake | Which advanced services a pharmacy delivers | NMS and Pharmacy First participation varies widely |
For regions:
| Metric | What it reveals |
|---|---|
| Pharmacy density | How many pharmacies serve a given area |
| GP-to-pharmacy ratio | Whether an area has enough pharmacies relative to GP surgeries |
| Revenue concentration | Whether a few pharmacies dominate local dispensing or whether it is evenly distributed |
PharmSee calculates these metrics using NHSBSA data combined with NHS Digital's pharmacy and GP practice registers. You can explore them on the pharmacy search and location analysis tools.
What the data does not tell you
Retail sales and private revenue. NHSBSA data covers NHS-funded activity only. It does not include over-the-counter medicine sales, beauty products, photo services, or any other retail revenue. For chains where retail represents a significant proportion of branch income, NHSBSA revenue alone substantially understates total turnover.
Private prescriptions. Prescriptions funded privately — including many travel health, hormone, and aesthetic prescriptions — are not captured. A pharmacy with a thriving private dispensing business may appear unremarkable in NHSBSA data.
Pharmacy First consultations in detail. While Pharmacy First payments are recorded, the clinical detail of consultations is not public. The number of patients seen, conditions treated, and referral rates are held by NHS England and ICBs rather than published in open NHSBSA datasets.
Operating costs. Revenue is visible; costs are not. A pharmacy generating £150,000 in NHSBSA revenue may be highly profitable (if it has low rent and a small team) or loss-making (if it has high rent, locum costs, and extended opening hours). NHSBSA data cannot distinguish between these scenarios.
Staffing levels. The data does not record how many staff a pharmacy employs, what they are paid, or whether the pharmacy is struggling to recruit. Staffing insights must come from job listing data, such as PharmSee's jobs tracker, not from NHSBSA records.
Common misinterpretations
"This pharmacy has no dispensing activity — it must be closed." Not necessarily. NHSBSA data has a reporting lag of up to one quarter. A pharmacy that opened recently, changed contractor code, or experienced a data submission issue may show zero activity despite being fully operational. PharmSee always notes this caveat when discussing pharmacy activity levels.
"Revenue per branch = pharmacy performance." NHS dispensing revenue is one input. It does not capture retail revenue, private dispensing, advanced services beyond what NHSBSA publishes, or operational costs. A pharmacy with low dispensing revenue may still be commercially viable through other income streams.
"More items dispensed = better pharmacy." Dispensing volume reflects prescription demand, which is driven by the local GP prescribing population — not pharmacy quality. A pharmacy next to a large GP surgery with 15,000 patients will naturally dispense more than one serving a smaller practice.
How PharmSee uses this data
PharmSee combines NHSBSA dispensing data with:
- NHS Digital pharmacy register — locations, contractor codes, and parent organisations for 13,147 pharmacies
- NHS ODS GP practice data — 12,858 GP practices with locations, for calculating GP-to-pharmacy ratios
- Index of Deprivation 2025 — linking pharmacy locations to local deprivation levels
- Live job listings from 11 sources — connecting workforce demand data to pharmacy locations
This combination allows analysis that no single dataset provides alone. Explore pharmacy performance data on PharmSee's pharmacy search, compare pharmacies with the comparison tool, or assess local opportunities with the location analysis.
Sources
- NHSBSA Open Data Portal — dispensing data, contractor payments
- NHS Digital — Organisation Data Service (ODS), pharmacy and GP registers
- PharmSee database: 13,147 pharmacies, 5.3M+ dispensing records, 35 months of history