This week is World Antibiotic Awareness Week. 

Consultant Microbiologist and Divisional Director, Gavin Boyd, said: "It's a great time to consider the importance of antibiotics and the role we have in protecting them".

Here are Gavin's top tips when prescribing antibiotics:

1. Always send relevant samples to try to diagnose the bug causing the infection, e.g. urine or blood for culture
2. Always check the patient's antibiotic allergies before prescribing, and check Flags and Alerts in EPR for history of MRSA / ESBL - this may change the recommended antibiotic treatment
3. Always prescribe antibiotics in accordance with the guidelines available on the intranet
4. Try to get patients off IV antibiotics and onto oral antibiotics as quickly as possible - it saves time, money, and patients prefer it too!
5. Always provide patients with information about side effects - this is particularly important for quinolone antibiotics (ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin) - read more