Antibiotic prescriptions ‘on the rise in deprived parts of England’

A new report has highlighted a rise in the number of antibiotics being prescribed to patients in the poorest parts of England.

The study from Exasol and Antibiotic Research UK analysed 602 million rows of data from the Health and Social Care Information Centre covering five years from August 2010 to July 2015.

Although antibiotic prescriptions are generally declining across England, GP practices in the most deprived parts of the country are prescribing 20 percent more, with prescriptions in these areas on the increase.

Prescriptions per head peaked in 2012, with a total of 3.8 million prescriptions to English patients, but have dropped 5.6 percent since. It was also shown that doctors prescribe 59 percent more antibiotics in December than in August – despite the fact that illnesses treated by antibiotics are not seasonal.

Professor Colin Garner, chief executive of Antibiotic Research UK, said: "Londoners and the Thames Valley region have the best access to healthcare and are also on average younger and healthier than the rest of the country. However, we would not expect to see such a large variation in prescriptions around the country."