Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-05-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the use of antibiotics.
Jane Ellison
The UK Five Year Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy is an ambitious programme to slow the development and spread of antimicrobial resistance, which was published in 2013. The Strategy aims to prevent infection, protect the antibiotics that we have and promote the development of new drugs and alternative treatments. Each of these initiatives will contribute to reductions in the inappropriate use of antibiotics.
Implementation of our Strategy has met with success in primary care. Between April and December 2015, two million fewer prescriptions were dispensed compared to the same period in 2014, a reduction of 7.9%.
Globally, the United Kingdom has been at the forefront of successful negotiations of the antimicrobial resistance resolution at World Health Organization last year, with equivalent resolutions relating to food and agriculture and animal health. A key part of this work is aimed at reducing the risk of infections and improving antimicrobial stewardship.
We are also aiming to raise the profile of antimicrobial resistance yet higher through a successful high level meeting on antimicrobial resistance at the UN General Assembly in September this year.
Furthermore, we will use the recently published recommendations from Lord O’Neill’s Review on antimicrobial resistance to address the global challenge of unblocking the antibiotic pipeline and reducing unnecessary antibiotic usage in both the human and animal health sectors.
