Antibiotic over-prescribing

Abstract

When antibiotics were developed for therapeutic use in the 1940s, they transformed medicine. Many lives were saved during the Second World War by the use of antibiotics for sepsis resulting from battle wounds. Since then new antibiotics have been discovered and used to treat a vast array of infections, both minor and life-threatening. However, microbes are also evolving and becoming resistant to these valuable medicines, thereby rendering them increasingly ineffective. The greater the use of antibiotics, the faster resistance occurs. The majority of antibiotics in the NHS are prescribed in general practice, and there is pressure on GPs to prescribe fewer antibiotics. This article explores how GPs can help to meet the challenge of safely prescribing fewer antibiotics.