A new study reveals that the Northeast and North Cumbria integrated care board are the painkiller centres of England. The study was conducted by the firm MyTribeInsurance, who analysed Open Prescribing data on the number of times analgesics, also known as painkillers, have been prescribed per month within each area across England (based on a normalised rate of per one thousand patients). The analysed data has been provided to Digital Journal for review.
The data set reveals how the Northeast and North Cumbria rank first with the highest number of times analgesics are prescribed to patients each month. NHS Northeast and North Cumbria integrated care board prescribed the most painkillers in the UK between April 2018 and March 2023, totalling just over 26.7 million. It also has the second-highest number of patients in its care, with over 3.1 million.
There are various factors that might impact how many times analgesics might be prescribed in one area, such as the age of the population.
Lincolnshire has the second-highest number of times painkillers are prescribed per month, totalling 123.61 times per one thousand patients. South Yorkshire ranks in third place, prescribing painkillers 120.28 times per month for every one thousand patients.
The top ten is:
| Area | Number of times painkillers prescribed per 1000 patients each month | Total times painkillers prescribed between April 2018 and March 2023 | Total number of patients in ICB | Total cost | |
| 1 | NHS NORTH EAST AND NORTH CUMBRIA INTEGRATED CARE BOARD | 142.69 | 26,744,666 | 3,177,477 | £136,960,990.24 |
| 2 | NHS LINCOLNSHIRE INTEGRATED CARE BOARD | 123.61 | 5,911,494 | 813,465 | £41,245,220.69 |
| 3 | NHS SOUTH YORKSHIRE INTEGRATED CARE BOARD | 120.28 | 10,602,049 | 1,498,977 | £68,915,149.80 |
| 4 | NHS CHESHIRE AND MERSEYSIDE INTEGRATED CARE BOARD | 112.45 | 18,082,686 | 2,741,984 | £114,443,880.61 |
| 5 | NHS LANCASHIRE AND SOUTH CUMBRIA INTEGRATED CARE BOARD | 110.49 | 11,881,297 | 1,831,803 | £76,738,247.91 |
| 6 | NHS CORNWALL AND THE ISLES OF SCILLY INTEGRATED CARE BOARD | 109.87 | 3,878,960 | 600,565 | £24,549,649.25 |
| 7 | NHS HUMBER AND NORTH YORKSHIRE INTEGRATED CARE BOARD | 107.91 | 11,397,192 | 1,788,985 | £78,142,653.34 |
| 8 | NHS STAFFORDSHIRE AND STOKE-ON-TRENT INTEGRATED CARE BOARD | 107.08 | 7,461,778 | 1,182,464 | £55,951,284.95 |
| 9 | NHS NORFOLK AND WAVENEY INTEGRATED CARE BOARD | 105.73 | 6,789,292 | 1,088,258 | £46,273,552.02 |
| 10 | NHS DEVON INTEGRATED CARE BOARD | 105.63 | 7,932,894 | 1,282,854 | £51,846,157.08 |
The fourth painkiller capital in the U.K. is Cheshire and Merseyside. The NHS Cheshire and Merseyside integrated care board prescribes analgesics on average 112.46 times per one thousand patients each month. The NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria integrated care board ranks fifth, spending over £76.7 million between April 2018 and March 2023 on painkillers being prescribed 11.8 million times.
In sixth place is NHS Cornwall and The Isles of Scilly integrated care board, prescribing painkillers at a rate of 109.87 times per month per one thousand patients. Ranking in seventh place is NHS Humber and North Yorkshire integrated care board which has over 1.7 million patients. The total amount spent on the 11.3 million times painkillers were prescribed between April 2018 and March 2023.
NHS Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent integrated care board ranks eighth, prescribing painkillers 107.8 times per month per one thousand patients. Ranking in ninth place is NHS Norfolk and Waveney integrated care board which has just over one million patients. In tenth place is NHS Devon integrated care board which has over 1.2 million patients on the board.
