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Prescribing monitoring document (PMD)

Access to PMD for:

  • registered users is through ePACT2
  • public users is through Catalyst - for national PMD report

PMD provides monthly financial information about prescribing costs against budgets. This allows the drugs element of unified budgets to be managed. 

The figures shown on this report are for monitoring purposes only. They do not reflect the actual charge.

Data within the PMD report is updated monthly. Statements are issued every month and show:

  • the indicative prescribing budget for the current financial year (not shown in April or May) 
  • total monthly expenditure 
  • cumulative expenditure (April to current month) 
  • forecast out-turn (based on information provided by the Department of Health and Social Care which is based on a spending pattern, calculated using previous years' spending data). The accuracy is determined by local factors at a local level (not shown in April or May) 
  • the number of dispensing days in the month and year to date

The annual statement produced for March shows the actual expenditure for the financial year.

Report notes

Figures are based on the Actual Cost of drugs prescribed.

From April 2024 Actual Cost is based on the Net Ingredient Cost of the item(s) supplied, less the appropriate discount rate of the prescribed product plus: 

  • payment for consumables 
  • out of pocket expenses
  • payment for containers.

Prior to April 2024 Actual Cost was the basic price of the drug less the National Average Discount Percentage (NDAP) plus:

  • payment for consumables (previously known as container allowance)
  • out of pocket expenses
  • payment for containers (10p for splitting packs)

All amounts are rounded to the nearest pound.

Monthly spend - some of the costs incurred for the dispensing of prescriptions are excluded from the expenditure figure.

These are professional fees, on-cost, oxygen cylinder delivery service, and oxygen concentrator services.

OOHC budgets are held locally. The OOHC expenditure shown only relates to FP10 prescribing that's been dispensed in the community.

Budget and forecast figures will not be shown on PMD statements for the first 2 months of each financial year. This is due to the volatility of prescribing over a short period which can seriously distort the annual out-turn amount.

If a practice moves to a new commissioner or provider mid-year, they'll retain their existing budget as this has been set according to the needs of the practice.

If their target budget needs to change mid-year, these changes need to be agreed with the commissioner or provider.

If the practice splits, the budgets will need to be agreed with the commissioner or provider and will normally be prorated with list sizes.

Practice budgets are notified to us by commissioner or provider. We do not hold records of local contingency funds.

What's included in PMD Reports

There are 5 types of report available to view:

  • national statement
  • ICB and commissioner or provider statement
  • practice summary in commissioner or provider
  • practice prescribing
  • practice annual profile

National statement

This shows the aggregate national detail.

ICB and commissioner or provider statement

This contains area and commissioner or provider totals.

Practice summary in commissioner or provider

This contains a list of practices in the commissioner's or provider's area and also prescribing which are outside the commissioner or provider.

Out of area prescribing shows commissioner or provider community non-medical prescribing where a prescription has been provided to a patient who belongs to a practice which is outside of the commissioner or provider where the prescriber is employed.

The costs of these prescriptions will be charged back to the prescribers commissioner or provider.

Any commissioner or provider community non-medical prescribing for practices within the commissioner or provider where the prescriber is employed, will be charged to the practice identified on the prescription form.

Practice prescribing

This includes a breakdown of expenditure by major therapeutic group.

Practice Annual Profile

Monthly expenditure details for the whole of the previous year, (April to March), plus details for the current year to date.

This information provided is cumulative. For example, April contains April details only, whilst May contains April and May.

It shows expenditure to date for each of the months.