NHS push to reduce antibiotic prescribing is successful

Two million fewer antibiotic prescriptions were dispensed between April and December 2015 as part of Public Health England (PHE) and NHS England’s drive to prevent a future health crisis caused by antimicrobial resistance

The progress follows the introduction of financial incentives in April 2015 by the NHS and PHE and resulted in a 7.9% reduction in the amount of prescriptions dispensed between April-December 2015 when compared with April-December 2014.

Inappropriate and overuse of antibiotics are known drivers of resistance; reducing the amount of antibiotics consumed slows bacteria developing resistance to these vital drugs and therefore helps prevent antibiotic resistant infections, according to NHS England.

Due to efforsts by the NHS and PHE in 2015, antibiotic prescribing reduced by 5.3% compared to 2014 – a total of 2,166,489 fewer items and within this total, there were 480,450 fewer ‘broad spectrum’ antibiotics, according to the NHS.

Duncan Selbie, chief executive of PHE, said: “Antimicrobial resistance is a major threat to health in the UK and globally and taking action to combat it is vital.

“I am delighted to see the success of the NHS achieving such a significant reduction.

Mike Durkin, NHS national director of patient safety, said: “Antimicrobial resistance is a major threat to the delivery of healthcare across the globe, and these findings clearly show that NHS England’s incentive programme is an important step in the right direction.

“Healthcare staff across the country should be congratulated for this significant achievement

“However, there is a lot of work still to be done to preserve the effectiveness of these vital drugs. This will require the continued effort of both medical staff and patients to ensure antibiotics are only used and prescribed where appropriate, across all areas of healthcare.”

PHE is also responsible for increasing both public and professional education around antimicrobial resistance and developed the Antibiotic Guardian campaign with partners.

The campaign urges members of the public and healthcare professionals to take action in helping to slow antimicrobial resistance by making a pledge about how they can personally help conserve these vital medicines, ensuring they work now and in the future.

Alongside collective efforts to safely reduce levels of prescribing, PHE works closely with prescribers to raise awareness of conditions where antibiotics are vital and need to be prescribed, for example patients who present with sepsis.

Sally Davies, chief medical officer for England said: “Antibiotics are the cornerstone of modern medicine and we need to do all we can to preserve them. I am really pleased to see that, through a focus on prescribing of antibiotics, we have seen such a real reduction in their inappropriate use.

“Unnecessary use of antibiotics contributes to an increase in drug resistant infections and it is great to see that England is taking steps to address this.”