This bulletin from the NHS Information Centre reports on the use of medicines in hospitals and puts their use into context by comparing it with their use in primary care and with medicines prescribed in hospitals but dispensed in the community.

The bulletin explores the use of medicines used in the management of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and the treatment of psychoses, presented in terms of Defined Daily Doses (DDDs).

• The overall NHS expenditure on medicines in 2010 was £12.9 billion
• In 2010 hospital use accounted for 31.7 per cent of the total cost, up from 30.9 percent in 2009
• The cost of medicines rose by 4.8 per cent overall but by 7.7 per cent in hospitals
• The route by which patients receive drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder varies widely between Strategic Health Authorities. In 2010 the proportion of drugs for ADHD (measured in Defined Daily Doses) prescribed in hospitals but dispensed in the community ranged from 10.4 per cent to 32.1 per cent.

Hospital Prescribing, England: 2010 (PDF). NHS Information Centre, 18 Oct 2011.