Combatting antimicrobial resistance, the UK’s second five-year national action plan promotes optimal use of antimicrobials in humans to ensure safe, effective care by strengthening antimicrobial stewardship programmes. It aims to reduce UK antimicrobial use by 5% by 2029, and to prevent any increase in Gram-negative blood stream infections from a 2019/2020 baseline.
Optimising the management of urinary tract infection (UTI) in primary care supports these goals, with NICE antimicrobial stewardship guidance offering evidence-based recommendations for antimicrobial prescribing for acute lower UTI, recurrent lower UTI, and catheter-associated UTI.
The UTI antimicrobial stewardship dashboard includes a range of comparators relating to the prescribing of selected antibiotics routinely prescribed in primary and community care to treat urinary tract infections. For the first time, it reports the count of people prescribed urinary continence devices. Comparators report both prescription item and people counts, and population rates, with filters enabling reporting by selected antibiotic, age band and gender.
The data, presented at organisational levels from GP practice to national (England), will support clinicians and NHS integrated care systems monitor population exposure to antibiotics, use of urinary continence devices, and identify opportunities to improve the management of urinary tract infections.
This dashboard is scheduled for release at the end of October 2024.