Pharmaceutical prescription items dispensed in England 2006-2023

In the years since 2016/17, there has been over one billion prescription items dispensed from community pharmacies in England. The year with the highest items dispensed was 2022/23, when 1.08 billion items were dispensed, a significant increase from the 850 million items dispensed 12 years previously.

Dispensing pharmacy numbers

The average amount of items dispensed at each pharmacy in 2022/23 works out at almost seven thousand per month per pharmacy. Although, over 2,700 pharmacies dispensed an average of over ten thousand items a month. Unsurprisingly, the average amount of prescriptions dispensed at each pharmacy has also increased since 2006.  

What is being dispensed?

The therapeutic class with the highest total of prescription items dispensed was for the cardiovascular system at some 340 million drugs, followed by drugs for the central nervous system which had approximately 226 million items dispensed. The single leading drug dispensed was atorvastatin which reduces the risk of heart attacks and strokes in those with high cholesterol.