Table 1.

Summary of the scenarios where primary care prescribing data are subject to absent prescriptions

Define the prescribing scenario for item of interest to address absent prescriptions (eight key scenarios)	Examples of items
(i) Out-of-hours, urgent care and acute care prescriptions	Antibiotics, acute painkillers, emergency contraception
(ii) Specialist-only prescriptions	DMARDs, cancer treatments, clozapine
(iii) Alternative community prescribing, such as pharmacy, family planning clinic or sexual health clinic medication prescriptions	Long-acting reversible contraception, emergency contraception, influenza vaccination prescriptions (2015/2016–2020)
(iv) Newly licensed medications prescriptions	Novel oral anticoagulants in the early 2010s
(v) Medications that do not require prescriptions	Ibuprofen, paracetamol, laxatives, topical antifungals, emollients
(vi) Hospital inpatient and outpatient prescriptions	Anticoagulants, antibiotics, clopidogrel
(vii) Handwritten prescriptions	Antibiotics, acute painkillers
(viii) Private pharmacy and private doctor prescriptions	Antibiotics, hair loss treatments, erectile dysfunction treatments

DMARD disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug