National Prescribing Indicators 2025-2026: Quarterly reports

The National Prescribing Indicators (NPIs) for 2025-2028 include indicators for primary and secondary care, with a focus on the following priority areas:

• Analgesics (including opioids, tramadol, and gabapentin and pregabalin
• Antimicrobial stewardship (including total antibacterial prescribing and the ‘4C antimicrobials’: co-amoxiclav, cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones and clindamycin, and course duration for respiratory tract infection antibiotics)
• Respiratory (including decarbonisation of inhalers and short acting beta agonist inhalers)
• SGLT-2 inhibitors in patients with and without diabetes.

These four priority areas were supported by additional indicators:

• Safety
  • Prescribing safety indicators
  • Hypnotics and anxiolytics
  • Yellow Cards
• Efficiency
  • Best value biological medicines
  • Low value for prescribing

On a quarterly basis, a report is compiled analysing the performance of each health board against the current set of NPIs.