The number of items dispensed from distance-selling pharmacies in England has quadrupled in the five years between 2016 and 2021, ocial data show. Figures (https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-22304) published in March 2022 by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) following a freedom of information (FOI) request have revealed that distance-selling pharmacies-which provide pharmacy services at a distance, including over the internet-dispensed 52,930,116 items in 2021, up 301 from the 13,190,131 items dispensed in 2016. In the same time period, the same data show that the number of items dispensed by all community pharmacy contractors in England increased by just 2.3, from 1.104 billion items in 2016 to 1.129 billion items in 2021. In its FOI response, the NHSBSA also noted that distance-selling pharmacies were only recorded in its systems from 2016, “so the numbers for the early months of 2016 are not exhaustive, but just the number that we have recorded” .
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