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Prescribing Information System (PIS)

Summary

Abstract

The Prescribing Information System (PIS) is the definitive data source for all prescribing relating to all medicines and their costs that are prescribed and dispensed in the community in Scotland.

Keywords

Health Prescriptions Medicine Scotland HDRUK

Publisher

  • Identifier
  • Name
    Public Health Scotland
  • Logo
  • Description
    Public Health Scotland is an NHS Board that is uniquely sponsored by the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) on behalf of local government.
  • Contact point

Documentation

Description

The information is supplied by Practitioner & Counter Fraud Services Division (P&CFS) who is responsible for the processing and pricing of all prescriptions dispensed in Scotland. These data are augmented with information on prescriptions written in Scotland that were dispensed elsewhere in the United Kingdom. GP’s write the vast majority of these prescriptions, with the remainder written by other authorised prescribers such as nurses and dentists. Also included in the dataset are prescriptions written in hospitals that are dispensed in the community. Note that prescriptions dispensed within hospitals are not included. Data includes CHI number, prescriber and dispenser details for community prescribing, costs and drug information. Data on practices (e.g. list size), organisational structures (e.g. practices within Community Health Partnerships (CHPs) and NHS Boards), prescribable items (e.g. manufacturer, formulation code, strength) are also included. Around 100 million data items are loaded per annum.
  • Associated media
    • Not available
  • Is part of
    • Not available

Coverage

Spatial

  • Spatial coverage

    United Kingdom, Scotland

  • Geographic levels
    Not available

Temporal

  • Start date
    01/04/2009
  • End date
    31/03/2026
  • Frequency
    Monthly
  • Distribution release date
    31/03/2026

Provenance

  • Purpose
    Care
  • Source
    Other
  • Collection situation
    Primary care - Clinic

Access and governance

  • Conditions of access
    General research use, Project-specific restrictions, Research-specific restrictions

Requesting access to this data

This is a secure dataset that can only be accessed by researchers from approved organisations.

Find out how to apply to access this dataset

Usage

  • Conditions of use
    Disclosure control, Institution-specific restrictions, Not for profit use
  • Resource creator
    Public Health Scotland
  • Is referenced by
    Not available

Access

Format and standards

  • Language
    English
  • Format
    Text, csv

Enrichment and linkage

  • Related datasets
    • Not available
  • Linkage opportunity
    Not available
  • Tools
    • Not available

Synthetic data

Synthetic data is not yet available for this dataset. 

Data dictionary

Data on all medicines and their costs that are prescribed and dispensed in the community in Scotland

AGE_IN_YEARS

age at paid date

MONTH AND YEAR OF BIRTH

month and year of birth

SEX

sex of patient

CARE_HOME_INDICATOR

Flag indicating whether or not the patient is a resident of a care home.

PAID DATE

Date on which prescription was processed and paid (always the last day of the month)

PRESCRIBED DATE

the actual date the prescription was prescribed (ddmmyyyy)

DISPENSED DATE

the actual date the prescription was dispensed (ddmmyyyy)

PI APPROVED NAME

Drug item's approved name as it appears on the latest edition of the BNF

PI PRESCRIBABLE ITEM NAME

The name of the prescribable item could be generic or proprietry

PI ITEM STRENGTH/UOM

Prescribable item's strength and unit of measure e.g. mg, ml.

Variable description

Data type
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