More GPS issuing antibiotics when they are unsure if drugs will work
THE numbers of GPS prescribing antibiotics without being certain they will do any good has risen, even though fewer patients are asking for the drugs.
Antibiotics do not work against viruses such as flu, but doctors have long argued that patients persuade them to prescribe them, even when warned they are ineffective.
However, a survey of 1,000 doctors by Nesta, a research charity, has found that 76 per cent of GPS are still prescribing antibiotics when they are unsure if an infection is bacterial, slightly up from 74 per cent in 2014.
In contrast, the number of patients demanding pills fell during the same period, from 40 per cent to 31 per cent.
Dr Clare Chandler, of the AMR (antimicrobial resistance) Centre at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: “These results demonstrate that the use of antibiotics by GPS relates more to diagnostic uncertainty than direct demand from patients. GPS need support to manage this.”
The new figures were released on the third anniversary of the Longitude Prize, which will reward £10million to anyone who can come up with a simple test to distinguish between a viral and bacterial infection by 2019. There are currently 250 competitors globally taking part.
Around 5,000 people in England die each year because antibiotics have become useless against some infections and experts predict resistance will kill more people than cancer and diabetes combined within 30 years. Under National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines, doctors when presented with confusing conditions, such as upper respiratory infections, are encouraged to delay prescribing antibiotics until symptoms worsen.
But the researchers found more than three quarters of doctors were still “erring on the side of caution” when they were unsure of a diagnosis.
Some 37 per cent of GPS surveyed also said they had prescribed antibiotics for a viral infection when they knew it would not treat the condition. Last month, Public Health England (PHE) launched its Keep Antibiotics Working campaign, warning patients that taking drugs when they are not needed puts them at risk of more severe or longer infections. A new television advert features cartoon antibiotics singing: “Every time you feel a bit under the weather, don’t always think that we can make you better.”
Daniel Berman, of Nesta, said: “The unnecessary over-prescription of antibiotics is one of the major factors in the growth of resistant strains of bacteria.
“We need accurate diagnostic tools to maximise the chances that antibiotics are only used when necessary and that the right ones are selected.”