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GPs to test patients’ blood before prescribing antibiotics in pilot scheme

GPs in Manchester will be giving patients C-reactive protein blood tests to decide whether they should be prescribed antibiotics or not, under a scheme being monitored by Public Health England.

Patients who go to the GP with a respiratory infection in NHS Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale CCG will be given a finger prick blood test to assess levels of CRP, with a low level potentially ruling out a serious infection, avoiding the need for an antibiotic prescription. 

This follows the launch of a Public Health England campaign cautioning patients against pressuring their GP into prescribing antibiotics and a letter to GPs from England’s chief medical officer Professor Dame Sally Davies warning that resistance to antibiotics ‘is a very real threat that patients are facing today’. 

Research in to the test, which can give results within minutes, has found that CRP testing can cut the number of antibiotic prescriptions by up to 10 million and save the NHS £56m a year.

The test was included in NICE guidance in 2014 for diagnosing pneumonia in adults but GP leaders have said CRP testing should be restricted to cases where GPs ‘would otherwise have prescribed’.

Dr Andrew Green, GPC’s clinical and prescribing policy lead, said: ‘We have to restrict its use to those cases where we would otherwise have prescribed, if near patient testing is used indiscriminately it might actually increase prescribing, and this will be exacerbated if the prospect of testing acts as a magnet to attract patients to our surgeries who otherwise would have self-cared.’

He added that it is of the ‘utmost importance’ that antibiotic prescribing be reduced with CRP testing ‘likely to become more common in an effort to achieve this’ but he added that practices have to be properly supported if it is to be successful.

The scheme in NHS Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale CCG was initially piloted across seven practices in the area over a year.

According to CCG board papers, the GPs involved in the pilot said that while the blood test took three minutes of consultation time, ‘the results were extremely useful to the GP and patient’ and it enabled GPs to provide ‘reassurance that refusal of a prescription was informed by best practice’. 

The rollout, which has a budget of £50,000, will see the CCG providing all 28 practices in the area with a CRP testing machine, test strips and lancets as well as training for ‘as many members of the practice as deemed to be required’.

Dr Keith Pearson, head of medicines optimisation at NHS Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale CCG, said the testing will help patients ensure that antibiotics ‘are prescribed for those patients who really need them’.

He added: ‘It’s estimated that 5,000 deaths are caused every year in England because antibiotics no longer work for some infections – 13 people every day. That’s why it’s so important for us to slow antibiotic resistance.’

The CCG told Pulse that PHE is aware of the CRP testing programme and monitoring it while it is still in the early stages.

Asked whether they were considering the scheme for a national rollout, Dr Susan Hopkins, lead healthcare epidemiologist for PHE’s antimicrobial resistance programme said: ‘This approach is one recommended by NICE in their guidance for patients presenting in primary care with symptoms of respiratory tract infection.

‘PHE monitors antibiotic use for every clinical commissioning group and are happy to work with any CCG who are using finger-prick testing to assess levels of C-reactive protein as a way of avoiding the need for an antibiotic prescription.’


          

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