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English Dispensing Doctor Numbers 2010
More Doctors Dispense
First ever fall in dispensing patient numbers
Dr Allan Tennant reports
27th of July 2009
Under the Freedom of Information Act DDA Online has obtained this year's data for dispensing doctors in England from the PPD.
On the 31st of March 2010 there were:
1129 dispensing practices
5,778 dispensing doctors
3,458,562 dispensing patients
8,240,760 patients get medical services from a dispensing doctor.
On the 31st of March 2009 there were:
1,139 dispensing practices.
5,731 dispensing GPs.
The number of dispensing patients was 3,513,528.
The non-dispensing list size was 4,760,614, giving a total number of patients getting medical services from a dispensing doctor in England of 8,274,142.
There was an increase of 47 dispensing GPs in 2010.
There were 10 less practices dispensing.
There were 54,966 less dispensing patients. This was the first decline in dispensing patient numbers we have seen and we believe it is partly due to doctors opening pharmacies in their surgeries.
The number of patients who receives their medical services from a dispensing doctor declined by 33,382.
What this data cannot show is how many dispensing doctors are now pharmacy owners. However we are aware of many practices that are opening pharmacies, particularly 100 hour pharmacies (which may partly account for the increase in the number of pharmacies dispensing high volumes), we also know that the number of prescriptions being prescribed by a GP with a pharmacy in the surgery has risen from 28% to 32% (excluding dispensing doctor prescriptions).
The author's Practice Director, Mr Brian Austen provides advice on pharmacy applications.