AMS in the UK
In this video, Mark Gilchrist, Consultant Pharmacist in Infectious Diseases at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, discusses his experience with developing the AMS program within a large NHS hospital trust that comprise five hospitals in London, UK.
Mark emphasises the importance of considering the local context when identifying priority areas for improvement and highlights specific challenges and opportunities his team has faced over the years.
At Imperial, audits and point prevalence surveys provide an important source of data, and they have a 20-year history of using and enhancing these datasets to understand the geography of antibiotics in their institution. From this, they were able to form a stewardship program around 4 key pillars:
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Clinical: providing up-to-date evidence-based advice to patients and staff on antimicrobials.
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Governance and policy: deriving the right treatment guidance for all staff by involving key stakeholders, and supporting timely changes in response to drug shortages and the latest evidence.
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Education and training: empowering local teams by using their own knowledge and adapting education and training needs to facilitate uptake.
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Research: being able to use data, obtain staff feedback, and explore innovative ways of using technology to further provide insight into where the gaps are and how to deliver information so that the program is always improving.
Mark Gilchrist ended the video by emphasising how important it is to always look at unintended consequences, to have continuous monitoring and review, and to involve a multi-disciplinary team (including disciplines that are not all necessarily traditionally associated with antimicrobial use) in order to further improve the AMS program.
If you wish to find out more out point prevalence surveys, there is a free FutureLearn course which provides further insight into this topic.
In the comments below please let us know:
- Are there factors which are similar to AMS in your area?
- Are there factors which differ to AMS in your area?
Tackling Antimicrobial Resistance: A Social Science Approach
Tackling Antimicrobial Resistance: A Social Science Approach
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