- GPs increasingly feel pressured into handing out antibiotics unnecessarily
- Survey finds nearly half do so knowing drug will not treat patient’s conditionÂ
- Findings add to fears doctors may be fueling the increase in superbugsÂ
- Some are handing antibiotics out simply to ‘get the patients off our backs’Â
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Almost half of GPs have admitted prescribing antibiotics simply to get pushy patients to leave their consultation rooms, it has been revealed.
A survey has found that 45 per cent of family doctors hand out the medication even though they know it will not treat the patient’s condition.
And 90 per cent of doctors felt pressure from patients to hand out the drug, according to the study.
The findings, compiled in The Longitude Prize survey, will add to fears doctors are helping to fuel the rise of superbugs.
Nine out of 10 family doctors felt pressure from patients to hand out antibiotics
More than a thousand GPs across the UK were questioned and found more than a quarter had prescribed antibiotics several times a week event when they were not sure it was medically necessary.
Some 44 per cent said they occasionally handed out the drugs purely to get patients to leave their surgeries, The Times reports.
London-based GP Rosemary Leonard, told the newspaper it is often hard to decline requests from patients – and even more so when children were involved.
She said: ‘If you don’t give the antibiotics, they’ll just come back the next day to see another doctor.
‘The reality is, we just do it to get the patients off our backs.’Â
The findings come after experts at Public Health England and University College London revealed earlier this month that the number of patients given antibiotics for minor ailments has soared in recent years.
While 36 per cent of patients were given antibiotics for coughs and colds in 1999, by 2011 this figure had soared to 51 per cent, the study published in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy found.
David Cameron has said resistant to antibiotics was a ‘very real and worrying threat’
Last month, Prime Minister David Cameron said that resistance to antibiotics was a ‘very real and worrying threat’ as he pledged to put Britain at the forefront of the fight against drug-immune bacteria threatening to send medicine ‘back to the dark ages’.
The latest research comes ahead of the £10 million Longitude Prize which will open later this year for entries to find an easy and cost-effective test for bacterial infections that doctors can use to determine if and when to give out antibiotics.
Seventy per cent of GPs surveyed said they prescribe because they are not sure whether the patient has a viral or bacterial infection, and 24 per cent say it is because there is a lack of easy-to-use diagnostic tools.
About 35 million prescriptions for antibiotics are dispensed every year by GPs in England.Â
The number has risen 30 per cent since 2000, according to NHS figures.
Meanwhile 5,000 people die from antibiotic-resistant infections in England every year.Â
Dr Leonard said she understands the pressures GPs are faced with to prescribe antibiotics when they are not actually necessary.
‘The more antibiotics taken, the more resistant bacteria come to them,’ she said.
‘Antibiotic resistance is a real issue and more needs to be done to conserve antibiotics for the future.
‘Diagnostics play a valuable role in making this happen. Not only can diagnostics help determine the type of infection someone has, they could gather valuable data and aid the global surveillance efforts.’
Tamar Ghosh who leads the Longitude Prize, said accurate diagnostic tools can help curb the unnecessary use of antibiotics across the globe.
‘In the next five years, the Longitude Prize aims to find a cheap and effective diagnostic tool that can be used anywhere in the world,’ said Ms Ghosh.
‘We recognise that stemming the misuse and overuse of antibiotics is just one piece of the jigsaw to slow bacterial resistance to antibiotics.
‘Nevertheless it’s an important step when we could be waiting many years for other solutions, including novel alternatives to antibiotics coming to the market.’
Just six per cent of 1,074 patients surveyed by Populus earlier this month said they would push their GPs to give them antibiotics, despite the high number of doctors saying they feel under pressure to do so.
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