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Written question asked by Owen Paterson (Conservative) on Monday, 29 March 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 6 April 2010. It was answered by Mike O'Brien (Labour) on Wednesday, 7 April 2010 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Prescriptions: Shropshire

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people resident in Shropshire have bought a prescription prepay certificate in each year since 1997.
Answer

National Health Service Help with Health Costs (NHS HwHC) do not hold pre-payment certificate information at primary care trust or county level. The information is available at national level for England which has been set out in the following table.NHS HwHC also do not hold records for the number of pre-payment certificates sold since 1997. Details of certificates issued are retained for seven years. The information available covers April 2003 to February 2010.

Number of prescription pre-payment certificates issued in England
Duration of certificates issued
Financial year Three-month Four-month 12-month Total
2003-04 — 572,863 461,614 1,034,477
2004-05 — 491,576 517,882 1,009,458
2005-06 — 638,413 524,232 1,162,645
2006-07 — 650,782 520,449 1,171,231
2007-08 474,570 176,503 593,507 1,244,580
2008-09 730,592 — 652,870 1,383,462
2009-10 648,518 — 588,820 1,237,338
Total 1,853,680 2,530,137 3,859,374 8,243,191
Notes: 1. 2009-10 only covers 11 months as March 2010 data are not yet available. 2. Between 2004 and June 2007, pre-payment certificates were available to cover a period of four months or 12 months. Since 1 July 2007 the four-month pre-payment certificate has been replaced with certificates covering three months. 3. The summary information used is available only by financial year. Source: Summary of information provided from NHS HwHC prescription pre-payment certificate database.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
508 c1446-7W; 325411
Session
2009-10
Subjects
Prescriptions Shropshire
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk