Stuff that occurs to me

All of my 'how to' posts are tagged here. The most popular posts are about blocking and private accounts on Twitter, also the science communication jobs list. None of the science or medical information I might post to this blog should be taken as medical advice (I'm not medically trained).

Think of this blog as a sort of nursery for my half-baked ideas hence 'stuff that occurs to me'.

Contact: @JoBrodie Email: jo DOT brodie AT gmail DOT com

Science in London: The 2018/19 scientific society talks in London blog post

Saturday 26 June 2021

Fortunately NHS England isn't wasting that much money on homeopathy prescriptions now - though still not zero (it's over £20k)

tl;dr - in the last financial year NHS England spent £21,170.37 on 866 homeopathic items. In the last calendar year (2020) it was £28,597.58 on 1,004 items.

For the latest figures there are two files as NHS BSA has made a change to their system - there's now a calendar year version and a financial year version. 

NHS Homeopathy Spend - England 2020-2021 - document 1 of 2 (summary Doc)
NHS Homeopathy Spend - England 2020-2021 - document 2 of 2 (summary Sheet)

Every year NHS England (through the NHS Business Services Authority) publishes "Prescription Cost Analysis – England [year]", the data about how many prescriptions were dispensed in England in the preceding year. It details every class of medicine (eg 'antibiotics') and then goes into more detail for each type of drug within that class, down to the level of different pack sizes. It's a very big spreadsheet but a simple Ctrl+F for homeop will show how many homeopathy items have been prescribed and the cost for them. 

Most of it seems to be imported from Germany although Weleda are getting a big chunk (see the SNOMED details below).  

Below that are the figures since 1995 (1995-2013 data comes from NHS but tabulated by Nightingale Collaboration used / published with permission). 

Financial year info (2020 - 2021)

From SNOMED code tab

£105.36    Ainsworths

£10,424.73    - homeopathy imported from Germany

£1,818.34    Nelsons

£811.92    Special orders

£8,010.02    Weleda


Calendar year (2020)

From SNOMED code tab

£336.73        Ainsworths

£11.30        Helios

£14,398.47       - homeopathy imported from Germany

£3,733.38        Nelsons

£543.65        Special orders

£9,574.05        Weleda

Number of Homeopathy items prescribed on the NHS, plummeting since 1995 along with the cost.

Yes, that is homeopathy becoming more dilute on the NHS.

YearItemsCost
1995164,207£816,798
1996172,013£914,983
1997162,421£937,311
1998157,063£927,633
1999147,769£888,274
2000134,164£831,130
2001127,333£807,125
2002117,989£778,749
2003103,940£714,938
200494,501£661,469
200582,960£593,316
200662,679£442,769
200749,316£321,418
200826,337£152,300
200919,005£100,486
201016,359£121,449
201115,501£130,601
201215,262£143,068
201313,001£137,298
201410,238£110,438
20158,894£94,313
20166,821£92,412
20175,105£63,124
20183,295£55,044
20192,188£48,109
20201,004£28,598

 For 2020 the calendar year is shown (866 items in financial year)




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Comment policy: I enthusiastically welcome corrections and I entertain polite disagreement ;) Because of the nature of this blog it attracts a LOT - 5 a day at the moment - of spam comments (I write about spam practices,misleading marketing and unevidenced quackery) and so I'm more likely to post a pasted version of your comment, removing any hyperlinks.

Comments written in ALL CAPS LOCK will be deleted and I won't publish any pro-homeopathy comments, that ship has sailed I'm afraid (it's nonsense).