It’s now World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW) 2021. WAAW is an awareness programme that attempts to:
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emphasise that antibiotic resistance is a major public health issue;
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raise awareness of antibiotic resistance and its dangers;
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encourage behaviour change towards the use of antibiotics;
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increase recognition of the role individuals play in preventing antibiotic resistance and that small actions can make a big difference.1
It takes place across the whole of the health and care arena, with everyone able to access materials to support their efforts. The UK Health Security Agency has produced resources in the form of posters, leaflets and such which can be used for WAAW and can be found at: Antibiotic awareness: toolkit for healthcare professionals in England - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
In West Yorkshire we have a local Antimicrobial Resistance group, brought together to facilitate the Health and Care Partnership's ambition of a 10% reduction in antimicrobial rates.
Part of this work is the LAMP audit and feedback project; each general practice receives an updated, tailored report bimonthly which details the practice's recent antibiotic prescribing and includes evidence, hints and tips in the hope that we can improve antibiotic stewardship.
Over the first 2 years of LAMP we have observed:
The pandemic is an obvious confounder for this change but for the whole of last year prescribing in this area was consistently below that of previous years; that continued until after the road map for reopening society had been announced and begun. Given that society had been predominantly 'locked down' with mask wearing and social distancing in place then it can be argued that the usual number of bugs had not been able to circulate, as we had not been circulating. Since we started to ‘open up society’ the bugs that had been dormant reappeared and prescribing has been climbing. This is simplifying a complicated situation but may explain some of the changes we have seen. What is interesting is that the rise has not all been related to respiratory tract infections but also other areas where antibiotics are issued. The LAMP project is therefore even more relevant during this period of societal flux as we move towards our previous norms.
In the months since we began to ‘open up society’ LAMP has continued into its third year (our next report will be report 19). Antibiotic stewardship has never been more important, as we recover from the worst pandemic event of the last century. In trying to assist general practice to make better prescribing decisions relating to antibiotics we would always stress that in a clinical consultation, if a clinician believes that a prescription is the most appropriate course of action then that is what should be done, as antibiotics do form an important part of healthcare delivery.
You can access your LAMP reports and all the collected evidence via your practice stack. If you would like to know more about your current situation then please check your general practice stack or get in touch with the team.
If you are having trouble accessing your LAMP reports then please get in touch with us and we will be able to help you: research@bradford.nhs.uk.
Over the next few days there will be blogs posted from across the region, all discussing different aspects of the antibiotic issue. We hope you will find these informative and helpful.
We will be posting a series of blogs over WAAW so please look out for them at: www.westyorksrd.nhs.uk/blog