WGPlus (Archive)

Simple things are sometimes the most (cost) effective

A GP surgery is leading the way in the fight against antibiotic resistance with simple tests that dramatically reduce unnecessary prescribing.

Attenborough Surgery in Bushey, Hertfordshire, was awarded £10,000 “acorn” funding in the 2015/16 NHS Innovation Challenge Prizes to further develop its system of point-of-care fingerprick blood tests which help clinicians decide whether antibiotics are really necessary for patients who visit with respiratory infections.

Spearheaded by Advanced Nurse Practitioner Liz Cross, all patients visiting the surgery with chesty coughs in winter 2015/16 were given the quick blood test, which shows levels of C-reactive Protein (CRP), a biomedical marker of bacterial infections. This allowed nurse practitioners to reduce antibiotics prescribed by 23%.

Researched Links:

NHS England:  Challenge Prize cash supporting GP surgery to fight antibiotic resistance

Hospitals are not ‘doing their bit’ to reduce need to use antibiotics

Helping guard against a return to pre-antibiotic medical care

We need to find an answer to this conundrum

Free, Secure, Compliant UK Public Sector IT Recycling Service