LPCs should use NHS England’s updated patient data tool to spot commissioning opportunities, PSNC has said.

NHS England’s medicines optimisation dashboard - which first launched last year - had been overhauled to increase the range of statistics available, the commissioning organisation said. The categories of data had been expanded from 29 to 45, including new figures on the number of patients with depression, asthma and COPD.

The tool still compiled data on medicine use reviews (MURs) and new medicine service (NMS) rates in pharmacies, which “may be interesting for LPCs and contractors”, PSNC said on Monday (May 26). LPCs could use these figures as “supporting evidence when getting services commissioned”, it added.

NHS England said it had relaunched the dashboard last Friday (May 22) with a "completely new look and feel". The tool was more “user-friendly” and data could now be compared between NHS England area teams as well as clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), it said.

The tool now included data on the number of emergency COPD and asthma admissions in each CCG, NHS England said.

The commissioning body had also increased the range of mental health data - including prescribing volumes for antidepressants and hypnotics - which deputy chief pharmaceutical officer Bruce Warner said was in response to user feedback.

Mr Warner told C+D that the extra data was not intended to “show good or bad practice” in any given area.

“People should be looking at the data and saying, ‘why are we different to our colleagues?’. It points people in a direction and allows them to have challenging conversations,” he added.

Last year, industry leaders welcomed the launch of the prototype dashboard as a way to encourage commissioners to fund more pharmacy services.
 

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