The cost of prescription items dispensed in communities across England increased by more than £83 million in 2021-22 compared with the year before.

A report from the NHS Business Services Authority revealed £9.69bn worth of items were dispensed in the last 12 months, a 0.87 per cent rise on the £9.61bn dispensed in 2020-21.

The number of prescription items dispensed also rose from 1.11 billion to 1.14 billion, which equated to a 2.58 per cent increase. Atorvastatin was dispensed the most during 2021-22 with 53.4 million items while the anticoagulant Apixaban cost the most at £401m.

The glucose monitoring system FreeStyle Libre 2 Sensor kit generated the biggest increase in cost at £69.8m between 2020-21 and 2021-22, going from £2.84m to £72.6m.

The most dispensed chemical substances in items over the last 12 months after Atorvastatin were Omeprazole (35,300,000), Levothyroxine sodium (33,300,000), Amlodipine (33,000,000), Lansoprazole (31,400,000) and Ramipril (30,500,000).