The use and overuse of antibiotics in humans is a major contributor to the selection of antibiotic resistance organisms. Recent evidence has shown that primary care prescribing selects for resistances of clinical importance. The National Prescribing Service runs both educational and audit activities. The latter provide some insight into general practice attitudes toward antibiotic prescribing.

Background Prescribing is a complex task, requiring specific knowledge and skills, and the execution of effective, contextspecific clinical reasoning. Systematic reviews indicate medical prescribing errors have a median rate of 7% [IQR 2%-14%] of medication orders [1-3]. For podiatrists pursuing prescribing rights, a clear need exists to ensure practitioners develop a well-defined set of prescr...

OBJECTIVES Prescribing medications is an important challenge in the transition to junior doctor practice. We explored the antimicrobial prescribing experiences of foundation year (FY) doctors in two UK hospitals. The study answers three research questions: (i) What types of antimicrobial prescribing experiences do FY doctors have?; (ii) How do they make sense of their antimicrobial prescribing ...

We aimed to study the relationship between the prescribing of lipid-lowering medication, social deprivation and other general practice characteristics. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of all general practices in England, 2004-05. For each practice, the following variables were obtained: standardized cost and volume data for lipid-lowering medication, descriptors of general practices, Inde...

OBJECTIVE To examine whether patient level morbidity based measure of clinical case mix explains variations in prescribing in general practice. DESIGN Retrospective study of a cohort of patients followed for one year. SETTING UK General Practice Research Database. PARTICIPANTS 129 general practices, with a total list size of 1 032 072. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Each patient was assigned a m...

BACKGROUND The indications for prescribing malaria chemoprophylaxis lack a solid evidence base that results in subjectivity and wide variation of practice across countries and among professionals. METHODS European experts in travel medicine, who are members of TropNetEurop, participated in a survey conducted using the Delphi method. This technique aims at evaluating and developing a consensus...

Background: The voluntary sector has long been recognised as making an important contribution to individual and community health. In the UK, however, the links between primary health care services and the voluntary and community sector are often underdeveloped. Social prescribing is an innovative approach, which aims to promote the use of the voluntary sector within primary health care. Social ...

BACKGROUND Clinical guidelines recommend the routine use of a single antipsychotic drug in a standard dose, but prescriptions for high-dose and combined antipsychotics are common in clinical practice. AIMS To evaluate the effectiveness of a quality improvement programme in reducing the prevalence of high-dose and combined antipsychotic prescribing in acute adult in-patient wards in the UK. ...

BACKGROUND The authors conducted a study to examine the antibiotic prescribing practices of general and pediatric dentists in the management of odontogenic infections in children. METHODS The authors relied on a cross-sectional study design to assess the antibiotic prescribing practices of general and pediatric dentists in North Carolina. The survey instrument consisted of five clinical case ...

INTRODUCTION Over the last few years, hypnotic and anxiolytic medications have had their clinical efficacy questioned in the context of concerns regarding dependence, tolerance alongside other adverse effects. It remains unclear how these concerns have impacted clinical prescribing practice. MATERIALS AND METHODS This is a study reviewing community-dispensed prescribing data for patients on t...