a genius idea to stop superbugs
WE ALL know that something has to be done about the impending crisis of antibiotic resistance.
If we do nothing, then in just a few years the antibiotics we now use will no longer work — and we’ll be faced with a nightmare situation in which a simple scratch could end up killing you.
This week, Public Health England launched a major campaign, Keep Antibiotics Working, to address this and to educate the public about the risks of overusing antibiotics.
As well as adverts warning of the danger, it has enlisted the help of psychology in what I think is a very clever move.
Patients want to do the right thing. However, they also want to feel they’ve been listened to by their doctor and that their concerns have been addressed.
The problem is that in many patients’ minds, the evidence of this is walking out of the surgery clutching a prescription. If they leave without one, many people feel short-changed.
As part of the new campaign, Public Health England has worked out a way of getting round this, with ‘ Treating your infection’ prescription pads for GPs to fill in.
The sheet explains how long to expect the symptoms to last, and what the doctor recommends you do to manage the symptoms.
It’s personalised for the patient, and includes a back-up antibiotic prescription that can be collected after a period of time set by the doctor if the symptoms don’t improve. Genius.
Trials of this have been overwhelmingly positive. At one of the surgeries, patients say it has meant the doctor spends longer listening to them, rather than wasting time explaining why they aren’t going to prescribe antibiotics.
If we’re to keep antibiotics working for the next generation, this is precisely the lateral thinking that is required.
A TRULY horrific statistic emerged this week: one in five children will be obese when they leave primary school, and another third overweight. Evidence suggests that if someone was overweight as a child, they’re unlikely to be a normal weight as an adult. They’re condemned to a life of obesity — with all the associated ill health. There is only one place to point the finger of blame: at parents. Given the health implications of obesity, this strikes me as nothing less than child abuse. What I find bizarre is that if a child is severely underweight, social services are all over the family like a rash. Why are we so blasé when it’s obesity?