29 Nov 2022
Group says its wants to maintain momentum in progressing responsible use of antibiotics across its sites, as data shows steady reduction of prescribed antibiotics across UK practices.
Paul Imrie
Job Title
VetPartners’ director of clinical research and excellence in practice Rachel Dean.
VetPartners says a report showing a steady reduction in use of antibiotics across its practices will help its efforts to promote responsible use throughout the profession.
Data collected in the VetPartners Antibiotic Stewardship Report 2022 shows each full-time equivalent (FTE) vet in the group prescribed an average 14.3% fewer antibiotics in the first six months of the year compared to 2021.
The actual figure of 1.86kg of antibiotics per FTE is down from 2.17kg per FTE.
Across the group, the amount of antibiotics bought by VetPartners was down to 3,037kg between January and June 2022, compared to 3,070kg at the same time in 2021.
VetPartners said it now wants to maintain the momentum on promoting responsible use of antibiotics in practice amid ongoing concerns about the threat of antimicrobial resistance and damage to the environment.
The data has been collected by the group’s clinical board and will enable the group to monitor use of antibiotics and progress other options to replace them in the management of disease in patients.
Rachel Dean, VetPartners’ director of clinical research and excellence in practice, said the data would provide an important step in monitoring antibiotic use across the entire profession.
Speaking at the report’s launch, Dr Dean said: “Our report is full of all the different activities we’ve done over the past 18 months to look at how many antibiotics we use, when we use them and where we have variations in use across the group. This enables us to see how we can maybe reduce what we use, or change the antibiotic we use, or replace it with a vaccine or some other health care intervention.
“This report explains across species in the VetPartners business what we’ve been doing and how this can impact care in a positive way. We treat hundreds of thousands of animals every day within VetPartners and use a lot of antibiotics, which are a critical part of delivering care.”
Dr Dean added: “We need to ensure we use antibiotics in the most responsible way possible and progress our care while looking after these really important drugs that save lives.
“In doing so, we protect the planet, we protect human and animal health, but importantly, we come together to make a big difference in the way we use and track the use of these drugs.”
Dr Dean said she was “proud of the people who have contributed to the data collection” and added she hoped other members of the profession would share their ideas, and help the sector as a whole to reduce antibiotic use.
The full report is available online.
