Trust me – I’m a doctor.

24th October 2017

Stockport residents are being asked to join the battle to protect antibiotics so that they work not just today but also in the future.

The message that’s coming across loud and clear is that to safeguard these life-saving drugs for the future, we’ve all got to trust our doctor.

Our family doctors have years of medical training and experience behind them, so when they say tell you that antibiotics won’t work on the illness you’ve got, they know what they are talking about.

Antibiotics don’t work on viruses – things like coughs, colds, sore throats and the flu – but patients regularly expect them to be doled out when they visit their GP.

They only help to fight infections caused by bacteria – very often serious illnesses like pneumonia, meningitis and kidney infections.

Worryingly the more often the drugs are used, the more the bacteria they are designed to tackle, adapt and then the antibiotics no longer work against them.

So if you want to ensure that antibiotics work for you for the future, we must cut down on their inappropriate use.

In Stockport, GPs and nurses prescribe over 216,000 courses of antibiotics a year but some of these are wasted because they are the wrong sort of medicine to take.

Obviously this risks the future of antibiotics. The NHS needs doctors and patients to work together to tackle the problem.

Local GP and Chief Clinical Officer of NHS Stockport CCG Dr Ranjit Gill said: “Antibiotics can be life-saving drugs so it’s vital we don’t contribute to their failure.

“There are a few things that patients can do to help us. Firstly, don’t expect to get antibiotics for any illness – your GP really does know best and will prescribe them if you have a bacterial infection that antibiotics can help treat.

“Secondly, when you are prescribed antibiotics, please take your doses as and when you’re meant to and always complete your course of drugs even if you feel better after a few days.

“By using antibiotics in the right way you will have helped to ensure that these life- saving medicines are more likely to work for you when you need them in the future.”

So trust your doctor and let’s keep antibiotics working!