STAFFORDSHIRE

CLINICIANS are urging people to return any unused antibiotics to their pharmacy so they can be disposed of safely.

Drug resistance over time causes various medications such as antibiotics to become ineffective and infections become difficult or almost impossible to treat.

This can occur when medication is not properly disposed of and enters our environment.

Amin Mitha, Deputy Director of Primary Care – Medicines Optimisation for Staffordshire and Stoke-on-trent ICB, said: “I would urge anyone who is prescribed a course of antibiotics to take them as advised, and if they have any left over to return them to their pharmacy.

“If you have unused or unwanted antibiotics, they should not be kept ‘just in case’ for another time or shared with other people. It could make them unwell.”