New Insights Into NHS Prescribing For Care Home Patients Aged 65 And Over Released
The number of care home patients aged 65 and over in England receiving NHS prescriptions has increased, according to new 2024/25 estimates published by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA).
The NHSBSA’s primary care prescribing patterns report for patients aged 65 and over shows that an estimated monthly average of 331,000 care home patients received NHS prescriptions, up from 323,000 in 2023/24.
These patients received an estimated 42 million prescription items at a drug cost of £410 million in 2024/25, compared to 40 million items costing £396 million the previous year.
The report reveals that care home patients aged 65 and over received a higher rate of prescribing than non-care home patients. This includes medicines associated with a risk of falling and anti-cholinergic burden – the combined side effect risk from drugs that interfere with memory, alertness, and movement.
However, they received less prescribing of medicines associated with kidney injury.
Other key findings include:
- Care home patients aged 65 and over were more likely to receive vitamin D and pain relief medications, whilst non-care home patients were more likely to receive Atorvastatin – a medicine that lowers cholesterol in your blood to help prevent heart problems like heart attacks and strokes.
- The total drug cost for paracetamol has doubled over the last five years to an estimated £22.4 million for care home patients aged 65 and over.
- Almost two-thirds of care home patients aged 65 and over who received prescriptions were female, with just over four in 10 of all care home patients being females aged 85 and over.
This year’s report includes new features such as:
- geographical breakdown of overall prescribing
- new anticoagulant prescribing metric
- comparison of prescribing metrics by estimated care home length of stay
The NHSBSA estimates provide insights at both national and local level, showing trends over time and variation for key prescribing metrics.
The full report is available at: https://nhsbsa-data-analytics.shinyapps.io/estimated-prescribing-patterns-for-care-home-patients/
