Article Text
Quality improvement
Randomised controlled trial
Delayed prescribing for respiratory tract infections in primary care results in lower antibiotic use
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Context
Eighty to 90% of all antibiotics are prescribed in primary care, mostly by general practitioners (GPs). Around 60% of these are prescribed for acute respiratory tract infections (RTIs), prescriptions which in many cases are unnecessary as most RTIs are either self-limiting bacterial conditions or of viral origin. A clear relationship between total antibiotic prescribing and development of resistance has been demonstrated, both on an individual and a societal level.1 ,2 However, in primary care the diagnostic tools are limited, resulting in diagnostic uncertainty, and it is often not easy to single out the few …
Footnotes
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Competing interests None.