Vet practices offer to take back unwanted medicines

Veterinary practices are taking part in an ‘antibiotic amnesty’ this month, the first time the initiative has been extended to medicines for the companion animal and equine sectors.

The campaign encourages the public to return out-of-date and unused antibiotics to practices for safe disposal instead of disposing of them themselves, in order to help tackle the growing issue of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

The amnesty is taking place during November 2022, intended to overlap with World Antibiotic Awareness Week, a World Health Organisation Initiative running on November 18-24. The campaign is an extension of the amnesty first introduced by NHS England (Midlands) in November last year, which encouraged the public to return old or unwanted antibiotics to community pharmacies and resulted in almost 8,000 amnesty-related conversations with patients and nearly 500 packs of antibiotics returned for safe disposal. Participating veterinary practices will also be accepting human antibiotics this year and redirecting them to NHS pharmacies.