NHS Digital

NHS BSA Open Data

NHS Business Services Authority open data portal providing 790+ datasets on NHS prescribing, dispensing, dental activity, pharmacy, and workforce data for England.

Data Model

• Dataset (package) — A named collection of data resources (CSV/JSON files). Identified by a slug name (e.g. english-prescribing-data-epd).
• Resource — An individual downloadable file within a dataset, typically monthly snapshots in CSV format. Has url, format, name.
• Organization — The NHS BSA division publishing the data (e.g. Community Prescribing & Dispensing).

Key Datasets

• english-prescribing-dataset-epd-with-snomed-code — Monthly prescribing data with SNOMED codes
• prescriber-details — GP practice and prescriber identifiers
• english-contractor-monthly-general-dental-activity — Dental treatment volumes
• contractor-details — Pharmacy contractor information
• consolidated-pharmaceutical-list — Licensed pharmacies register
• nhs-low-income-scheme-lis-data — Financial support scheme data

Gotchas

• The API follows the CKAN 3.0 standard. All responses wrap in {"success": true, "result": ...}.
• package_search supports Solr query syntax for the q parameter.
• Some datasets are marked RETIRED and link to replacement datasets in their notes.
• Resources are typically large CSV files (monthly snapshots).
• The rows parameter controls page size (max ~1000). Use start for pagination offset.