Antibiotic Prescribing

What this data shows:

This measure shows the amount of antibacterial drugs that have been prescribed, in relation to what would be expected given the number and characteristics of patients registered at the practice, for example, recognising some drugs are generally prescribed more for older patients. The England average is 0.879 (The England average is based on an average of values, for those practices with valid data within the the reporting period).

How the data is gathered:

Lower values are better. The national level of expectation for this indicator is 1.16 in 2017/18 with a reduction to 0.965 in 2018/19.

The numerator is the total number of prescription items for Antibacterial drugs (as defined by the British National Formulary (BNF 5.1)

The denominator is the total number of Oral antibacterials (as defined by BNF 5.1 sub-set) ITEM based Specific Therapeutic group Age-sex Related Prescribing Units (STAR-Pus).

This STAR-PU weighting is used as it takes into account variation in the size and nature of the population served by each practice. For more information on STAR-PUs please see: https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/2017-07/ePACT2%20guide_How%20to%20use%20Standard%20PU%2C%20Astro%20PU%20and%20STAR%20PU%20figures.pdf

More information about the data source:

Prescribing indicators are presented for a rolling year. Values presented are an average for the rolling period i.e. sum of 4 quarterly numerators divided by the denominator from the final quarter.

Data Source:

Quarterly data extract obtained from NHS Business Services Authority (BSA), BSA indicator code 6 (MOKTT Antibacterial items/STAR PU)

Data Period:

This prescribing indicator is presented for a rolling year to the quarter of latest available data. The current data is for the period 2018/19 Q4

Further Information:

Antibiotic resistance poses a significant threat to public health, especially because antibiotics underpin routine medical practice. To help prevent the development of resistance it is important to only prescribe antibiotics when they are necessary, and not for self-limiting mild infections such as colds and most coughs, sinusitis, earache and sore throats.

http://www.nice.org.uk/mpc/keytherapeutictopics/keyTherapeuticTopics.jsp

Over-use and inappropriate use of antibiotics is a problem as it can lead to the spread of antimicrobial resistance.  Antibiotic resistance has increased year on year (2010-13) and along side this, the number of bloodstream infections caused by resistant bacteria has also increased. For more information see the UK 5-year Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-5-year-antimicrobial-resistance-strategy-2013-to-2018.

GP practices can play an important role in ensuring that prescriptions of antibiotics are appropriate. As part of the quality premium process, an aim has been set for a 1% reduction in the number of antibiotic prescriptions compared to the baseline level.

Technical Information:

STAR-PU (Specific Therapeutic Group Age-sex weightings Related Prescribing Units). These weighting allow more accurate and meaningful comparisons within a specific therapeutic group by taking into account the types of people who will be receiving that treatment. These have been developed using the same methodology as used for ASTRO-PUs but are based on costs within therapeutic groups rather than all prescribing. The STAR-PU weightings for anti-bacterials are item based, as this is more appropriate for such prescribing.