NHS English Prescribing Data (EPD) Analysis Using Python and SQL

Overview

This project focuses on extracting and analyzing NHS English Prescribing Data (EPD) from the CKAN (Open Data Portal) API using SQL and Python. The analysis includes data retrieval, cleaning, exploratory data analysis (EDA), and key insights into prescribing patterns across various regions and medications.

Dataset

The dataset is available on the NHS Open Data Portal (CKAN):
🔗 English Prescribing Data (EPD) Dataset

Extracting Data from CKAN API Using SQL

The NHS CKAN API provides a Datastore API to fetch data directly using SQL queries.

1. Fetching Data Using CKAN API

To retrieve data, use the following API endpoint:
https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/api/3/action/datastore_search_sql?sql=<SQL_QUERY>

Replace <SQL_QUERY> with your SQL statement.

2. Example SQL Query to Filter Data

Fetch prescribing data for a specific resource_id, BNF Chemical Substance, and Practice Code:

SELECT * 
FROM "resource_id" 
WHERE "BNF_CHEMICAL_SUBSTANCE" = 'Paracetamol' 
AND "PRACTICE_CODE" = 'A12345';

Replace "resource_id" with the actual resource ID for the EPD dataset.
Update BNF_CHEMICAL_SUBSTANCE to filter by a specific medication.
Use PRACTICE_CODE to filter by a specific GP practice.


### 3. Getting the Resource ID
To obtain the correct `resource_id`, use the API:
[https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/api/3/action/package_show?id=english-prescribing-data-epd](https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/api/3/action/package_show?id=english-prescribing-data-epd)

## Technologies Used
- 🐍 **Python**
- 📓 **Jupyter Notebook**
- 🛢️ **SQL** for data extraction
- 🔍 **CKAN API** for open data retrieval
- 📊 **Pandas** for data manipulation
- 📈 **Matplotlib & Seaborn** for visualization