Progress in cutting hospital prescribing of broad-spectrum antibiotics set back by pandemic

Efforts to reduce hospital prescribing of broad-spectrum antibiotics have been hindered by the COVID-19 pandemic, NHS England’s antimicrobial resistance (AMR) lead has said.

Kieran Hand, the national pharmacy and prescribing clinical lead for AMR at NHS England and Improvement, said that between 2017 and 2019, prescribing per hospital admission of certain broader-spectrum antibiotics fell by 5.5%.

However, speaking at the Clinical Pharmacy Congress on 13 May 2021, he said that this trend reversed between 2019 and 2020, when prescribing of these antibiotics increased by 3.6%, owing to increased use during the first and second waves of the pandemic.