GP efforts to cut antibiotic use failed to curb spread of drug resistant E coli, evaluation finds

Researchers have called for a more radical, multisectoral approach to halting the rise in drug resistant Escherichia coli infections in England after finding that incentivising general practices to reduce antibiotic prescribing on its own was insufficient.

The team from Imperial College London assessed the effects on antimicrobial resistance of NHS England’s “quality premium” scheme, which was introduced in 2015 to reward groups of GPs for reducing inappropriate antibiotic prescribing in primary care, where 70% of antibiotics in England are prescribed.

Their findings, published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases,1 show that while the intervention did reduce antibiotic prescribing, …