Dr Nuala O’Connor is the ICGP lead in the ICGP as the GP lead on the Health Care Associated Infection and Antimicrobial Resistance (HCAI AMR) Clinical Programme. The project is being sponsored by the HSE’s Quality Improvement Division (QID).
What does this improvement project entail?
The project is supplying you with different materials to educate patients regarding antibiotic use and to support prescribers to reduce rates of antibiotic prescribing.
These include the following:
Patient education
- Information leaflets for patients on antibiotic use, which will be available on check in;
- Antibiotic messages available on phones when patients call OOH;
- Information on tv screens in the waiting rooms including information onantibiotics; and
- Information leaflets for patients on self- management when diagnosed with a viral illness.
Prescriber education
- Education materials on preferred antibiotics;
- Provision of a personal audit tool;
- Tips for handling consultations if a patient is expecting an antibiotic; and
- Reminder messages before your OOH shift.
When is the project taking place?
We hope to implement the project interventions between November 2016 – April 2017.
How will we measure improvement?
We are working with IT staff to extract pre-project data (numbers of antibiotics prescribed and types) from patient records. All data extracted will be anonymised and no doctor’s individual prescribing rates or patterns will be documented.
There is a simple personal audit tool, which we encourage you to use so you can complete your annual CPD audit while doing your OOH shift or during day time surgery. No one will be able to access this data.
All OOH participants will receive a certificate of participation from the HSE’s Quality Improvement Division and you can add this to your personal audit tool cycle sheets for CPD medical council requirements. We sincerely hope that you will participate in this project, which will improve our use of antibiotics.
All materials are also available on www.antibioticprescribing.ie
Dr Mel Bates, Mr Liam Quinn,
Medical Director CEO
Dr Nuala O’Connor, Roisin Breen,
ICGP Lead Antibiotic Resistance Quality Improvement Facilitator, HSE
Keeping antibiotics effective for future generations – it’s everyone’s responsibility
