The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 273 No 7319 p458
2 October 2004

This article
Reprint   Photocopy

  Acrobat Reader

BPC 2004 News summary

Show benefits from antimicrobial funding

Hospital pharmacists need to work together to show the Government that they are spending wisely the £12m funding they received last year to promote rational antimicrobial use, according to Duncan McRobbie, principal clinical pharmacist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital NHS Trust, London. He was speaking at a BPC session.

It is not yet known whether the Department of Health will require clinical pharmacists to report formally about what they have achieved in terms of reducing resistance and, if so, what form the evaluation will take. “Whether or not the Government ask us to, we should be thinking about how we can show that we have brought benefits,” Mr McRobbie said. “Otherwise, there must be a danger that money for clinical pharmacy initiatives in the future might not be forthcoming” he continued.

Carrying out audits of antimicrobial use across a trust would be a simple way of demonstrating benefits, according to Phil Wiffen, a member of the Cochrane review team and previously at the DoH.

Alison Ewing, clinical director of pharmacy at the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital NHS Trust, suggested that a national approach to this auditing should be taken.