Project overview
Background
One in three people see doctors, nurses, or pharmacists each year with common infections, such as colds, flu, chest, ear, sinus and urine infections. Currently most antibiotics are prescribed in general practices, and half of the people contacting general practices with infections receive antibiotics, but antibiotics mostly don’t help. Overuse of antibiotics harms people and causes antibiotic resistance to develop, where antibiotics no longer work well.
This could make modern medicine, such as routine surgery and cancer treatments, difficult or impossible. Early evidence from community pharmacy ‘minor illness’ schemes, and from piloting of redirection of patients presenting with infections to linked community pharmacies, suggests this is probably both safe and may lower antibiotic use. However, these services are not widely available. Although a new national pharmacy infection management scheme is being negotiated it is going to be limited in scope. There is no high-quality scientific evidence for this type of infection service.
Aim
To finish development and feasibility test a pharmacy package using decision-making tools and POCTs to share the management of acute infections in primary care.
Developing tools to support antibiotic stewardship
We are developing evidence based ‘decision-making tools’ to standardise care and help identify people who do not need antibiotics, and those who might need them, or need further assessment. The intervention will include these decision-making tools, as well as diagnostic tests that can be carried out on the spot if needed (such as C-reactive protein) and patient leaflets to support self-care. There will be a training package to help health professionals to use all these tools in patient consultations. We will continue working closely with patients, pharmacists, and other prescribers from general practice (GPs, nurses) to make sure the tools and training are helpful and easy to use.
Testing the feasibility of using the package
10 general practices will continue with management as usual, and 10 will be trained to refer patients presenting with common infections to linked community pharmacies who will use the intervention. We will include practices in a wide range of settings (including high and low income areas, urban and rural, and practices with high ethnic minority populations) and will look at how well the service works, what the implications are for providing the service, and patient and healthcare professional views with a view to any revisions needed prior to a fuller trial of the new service.
PPIE
Public contributors have helped design this study, are members of our study team, and will be involved in study management, delivery, and dissemination. We have also recruited a PPIE reference group with a wider range of people from different backgrounds to help throughout the study.
One in three people see doctors, nurses, or pharmacists each year with common infections, such as colds, flu, chest, ear, sinus and urine infections. Currently most antibiotics are prescribed in general practices, and half of the people contacting general practices with infections receive antibiotics, but antibiotics mostly don’t help. Overuse of antibiotics harms people and causes antibiotic resistance to develop, where antibiotics no longer work well.
This could make modern medicine, such as routine surgery and cancer treatments, difficult or impossible. Early evidence from community pharmacy ‘minor illness’ schemes, and from piloting of redirection of patients presenting with infections to linked community pharmacies, suggests this is probably both safe and may lower antibiotic use. However, these services are not widely available. Although a new national pharmacy infection management scheme is being negotiated it is going to be limited in scope. There is no high-quality scientific evidence for this type of infection service.
Aim
To finish development and feasibility test a pharmacy package using decision-making tools and POCTs to share the management of acute infections in primary care.
Developing tools to support antibiotic stewardship
We are developing evidence based ‘decision-making tools’ to standardise care and help identify people who do not need antibiotics, and those who might need them, or need further assessment. The intervention will include these decision-making tools, as well as diagnostic tests that can be carried out on the spot if needed (such as C-reactive protein) and patient leaflets to support self-care. There will be a training package to help health professionals to use all these tools in patient consultations. We will continue working closely with patients, pharmacists, and other prescribers from general practice (GPs, nurses) to make sure the tools and training are helpful and easy to use.
Testing the feasibility of using the package
10 general practices will continue with management as usual, and 10 will be trained to refer patients presenting with common infections to linked community pharmacies who will use the intervention. We will include practices in a wide range of settings (including high and low income areas, urban and rural, and practices with high ethnic minority populations) and will look at how well the service works, what the implications are for providing the service, and patient and healthcare professional views with a view to any revisions needed prior to a fuller trial of the new service.
PPIE
Public contributors have helped design this study, are members of our study team, and will be involved in study management, delivery, and dissemination. We have also recruited a PPIE reference group with a wider range of people from different backgrounds to help throughout the study.
Staff
Lead researcher