Medics told to cut use of antibiotics by 15pc

Health Secretary says new electronic software will lead move to prescribing drugs when most needed

MEDICS will be ordered to cut the use of antibiotics by 15 per cent by using electronic prescribing.

Health chiefs have drawn up the plans amid warnings that antibiotic resistance poses as great a threat as climate change. Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, will today tell the World Economic Forum in Davos that “we are on the cusp of a world where a simple graze could be deadly”.

Calling for the issue to be treated as a “global health emergency”, he set out targets to cut the drugs’ use across the country by 15 per cent within six years.

Simon Stevens, the head of the NHS, said much of the change would be achieved by the roll-out of electronic prescribing across the health service.

The software will alert doctors to the most appropriate drugs for any condition, keeping them for when they are most needed. It also means health officials can detect regions that are handing out the most antibiotics – and put pressure on medics to cut down.

In his speech today, Mr Hancock will also unveil plans to reduce the number of resistant infections by 10 per cent by 2025, targeting 5,000 fewer drug-resistant infections and at least 15,000 fewer total healthcare-acquired infections a year.

He will say: “Imagine a world without antibiotics. Where treatable infections become untreatable, where routine surgery like a hip operation becomes too risky to carry out and where every wound is potentially life-threatening. What would go through your mind if your child cut their finger and you knew there was no antibiotic left that could treat an infection?

“This was the human condition until almost a century ago. I don’t want it to be the future for my children – yet it may be unless we act.”

Mr Hancock will tell the forum he “could not look my children in the eyes” if he was not doing all he could to tackle the threat, adding: “Antimicrobial resistance is as big a danger to humanity as climate change or warfare … we need an urgent global response.”

Theresa May, the Prime Minister, last night said: “The increase in antibiotic resistance is a threat we cannot afford to ignore. It is vital that we tackle the spread of drug-resistant infections before routine operations and minor illnesses become life-threatening.”

Government data showed that, since 2014, the UK had cut antibiotic use by more than 7 per cent and sales of antibiotics for use in food-producing animals had dropped by 40 per cent.

But the number of drug-resistant bloodstream infections increased by 35per cent between 2013 and 2017.

Prof Dame Sally Davies, the chief medical officer for England, said: “The threat of antimicrobial resistance cannot be overstated – without intervention it is not an exaggeration to say that we could return to the dark ages of medicine.”

Under the plans, health officials will explore how a new payment model could incentivise firms to develop drugs that will treat high-priority resistant infections.