Online prescribing of antibiotics

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been identified by the World Health Organization as the most serious global threat to public health, but online prescribing encourages a view that antibiotics can be obtained easily at the click of a button when their use should be restrained to only when they are absolutely necessary.

The Sunday Mirror revealed just how easy it is to get antibiotics online and how difficult it is to regulate online providers. It took one journalist, posing as a patient, just three minutes to get one antibiotic prescription for cystitis approved after completing a questionnaire. The journalists were even able to get multiple batches of pills because there was no apparent crosschecking between sites.

Prescribing antibiotics without adequate medical checks is against National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines. It also undermines government warnings that if effective controls are not put in place to curb unnecessary prescribing, antibiotic resistant diseases will overtake cancer as the leading cause of death.