References
Less is more when reducing antimicrobial prescribing
Abstract
As primary care is the main provider of antimicrobial prescriptions, knowing when and what to prescribe, and for how long, is hugely important to public health. Gail Haddock shares useful resources and toolkits to help practice nurses in their decision making
Clinicians have reduced their antimicrobial prescribing by 6% in the past 5 years, but this is not enough to overcome the ever-increasing antimicrobial resistance that is a threat to modern medicine. The UK's new target is to reduce prescribing by a further 15% by 2020. This can only be achieved by the commitment of the full general practice team to only prescribe at the right time (ie only if necessary), and the right dose of the right antibiotic for the right length of time. There are numerous excellent resources for patients and clinicians alike on the TARGET website.
Concerns around the overuse of antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) have been prevalent in the past few years in the national media, leaflets, walls and windows of community pharmacies and practice waiting rooms, and on the clipboards of those at the Clinical Commissioning Groups. There have been excellent educational packages produced for clinicians, such as the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) TARGET resources, educational packages for schools such as the e-Bug, a Public Health England (PHE) approved public awareness film called CATCH (2019), and patients and clinicians can now pledge to be an Antibiotic Guardian (www.antibioticguardian.com). As a guardian, you can choose one pledge that you will incorporate into practice, for example consulting guidelines when presented with patients with respiratory infections and making sure all prescribers in your practice have access to your local antibiotic guidance.
There has only been a 6% reduction in total prescribing from 2014–2017 (PHE, 2018). However, as the Antibiotic Guardian Campaign stresses, it is everyone's responsibility to reduce antibiotic prescribing, not just the prescriber's. After all, losing the effectiveness of one the most lifesaving groups of medications will be a problem for everyone.
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