Doctors have rounded on the health secretary, Thérèse Coffey, after she admitted to sharing prescription medicines with others, actions the British Medical Association described as both dangerous and against the law.
Coffey told civil servants in a meeting last month that she had given leftover antibiotics to a poorly friend, an admission that came as the discussion on how to alleviate pressures on struggling GPs moved on to public behaviour around antibiotics.
Coffey’s comments provoked despair and disbelief among medical professionals who fear that members of the public might reach the false conclusion that it is safe and lawful to share unused medicines because the secretary of state had done so. One doctor accused Coffey of “monumental stupidity”.
“Sharing prescribed medications, particularly antibiotics, is not only potentially dangerous, but also against the law, and we would ask our health secretary to instead support us in encouraging good and safe prescribing practices,” said another doctor, Richard Van Mellaerts at the BMA.
The backlash came amid reports of plans to allow pharmacies to prescribe antibiotics without patients first being examined by their GP. The proposals have sparked concerns that antibiotics may be handed out more freely, leading to more drug-resistant bugs, and ultimately threatening patient health.
“Antibiotics are a precious resource and should be prescribed only when absolutely necessary,” Van Mellaerts said. “Overusing antibiotics risks making them less effective, and makes some infections increasingly difficult to treat, which can then actually increase pressure on the health service as patients remain unwell.”
While pharmacists play a vital role in supporting GPs, making it easier for others to prescribe antibiotics was not the way to reduce demand for GP appointments or the wider pressures doctors face, he added.
Senior doctors have long warned that overuse of antibiotics drives the emergence of drug-resistant bugs and risks a return to the “dark ages of life-threatening surgery”. The more antibiotics are used, the more opportunities bacteria have to evolve resistance, eventually rendering the drugs useless.
Dr Rachel Clarke, an NHS palliative care doctor who works in a hospital near Oxford, said it was “monumental stupidity” for Coffey to hand out antibiotics to others.
“What she has admitted to doing is illegal, and either she thinks she can break the law with impunity, or she’s too ignorant to know that handing out NHS drugs to people who are not the intended recipient is a very serious matter,” Clarke said. “If you’ve got someone of that stature saying ‘well, I dish out antibiotics to my friends and family’, that’s practically encouraging the public to do the same. It’s so irresponsible.”
Azeem Majeed, a professor of primary care and public health at Imperial College London, said plans for pharmacists to prescribe antibiotics were unclear, but were unlikely to involve making the drugs available over the counter. “It is likely to be protocol-driven prescribing for conditions such as uncomplicated urinary tract infections in women,” he said.
“I think pharmacists are capable of undertaking this work, but I would rather see increased investment in core GP services to improve access for patients rather than the fragmentation of primary care delivery and the mixed range of interventions the government is introducing, without much success, to reduce pressures on NHS general practice,” he said.
A spokesperson for Coffey said: “The secretary of state has explored a range of policy options to relieve pressure on GPs, including whether it is possible to allow greater prescribing by pharmacists – as happens in many places, including Scotland. These wide-ranging discussions included reflections on the importance of anti-microbial resistance and societal behaviours around antibiotics.”
Based on data from Scotland, the Department of Health and Social Care believes that prescribing antibiotics for urinary tract infections alone could save £8.4m and 400,000 GP appointments a year. Beyond antibiotics, pharmacists could be relied upon to prescribe drugs for hypertension, high cholesterol, contraception and minor illnesses.
A source close to Coffey said her comments were private remarks and a personal anecdote made in the course of a meeting about antibiotics. “She understands the importance of anti-microbial resistance, would encourage people not to share medicines and won’t do so again in the future,” they added.
