Is this necessary?
Doctors will be asked to keep an eye on their colleagues and take action if they think that antibiotics are being unnecessarily prescribed to combat drug resistant infections.
GPs are required to tell patients why antibiotics might not be the ideal option for them according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice).
The proposal aims to guarantee that the antibiotics are still effective in the treatment of infections as the number of medicines are increased and the more resistant the conditions become.
A report that was published in December 2014 stated that resistant bugs will take an extra 10 million lives every year by 2050- more than those who die of cancer.
The prescription of antibiotics has increased over the last few years and now GPs are under scrutiny for being too liberal with them.
In 2013/2014, 41.6 million prescriptions were issued, costing the NHS £192 million.
The same antibiotic medicines what were used 60 years ago are still being used today as there have been very few developed over the last three decades according to NICE.
Health professionals hold monitor their colleague’s prescriptions when it comes to antibiotics to “encourage an open and transparent culture,” said Professor Mark Baker, director of the Centre for Clinical Practice at Nice.
He added: “But it’s not just prescribers who should be questioned about their attitudes and beliefs about antibiotics.
“It’s often patients themselves who, because they don’t understand that their condition will clear up by itself, or that perhaps antibiotics aren’t effective in treating it, may put pressure on their doctor to prescribe an antibiotic.”