GPs defy NHS over antibiotics

GPs are wrongly prescribing antibiotics for patients with sore throats, despite a long-running NHS campaign to restrict their use, according to new research.

In a survey of 1,000 people, 46 per cent had been prescribed antibiotics for a sore throat, and one in three advised by a GP to use antibiotic throat lozenges.

This goes against National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines, which state that antibiotics should not be used to relieve symptoms of a sore throat – best treated by drinking plenty of fluids and resting.

However, more than one in five participants in the survey, carried out by Ultra Chloraseptic throat sprays, admitted to having asked their GP for antibiotics for a sore throat, with an additional one in seven (13 per cent) saying they thought doctors were wrong to refuse them.

Sussex GP Dr Paul Stillman said that as antibiotics used to be prescribed routinely for sore throats, many GPs caved in to demands from their patients.

He added that some patients ‘can become quite angry’ when refused them for a sore throat but ‘in the vast majority of cases there is no need to use antibiotics and every reason to avoid them’.