Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-07-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much additional funding is being made available by his Department to meet the target of a 50 per cent reduction in prescription of antimicrobial drugs.

Nicola Blackwood

The Government’s ambition to reduce inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics by half by 2020 will be achieved through financial incentives within the Commissioning for Quality and Innovation and Quality Premiums schemes. These schemes reward healthcare providers for improvements in the quality of the services that they commission or provide, that contribute to better patient outcomes.

The National Health Service has already made good progress in reducing inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics. Between April and December 2015, two million fewer prescriptions were dispensed compared to the same period in 2014. Overall, the NHS’ new programme to reduce prescribing went live in April 2016 and will offer hospitals incentive funding worth up to £150 million to support expert pharmacists and clinicians review and reduce inappropriate prescribing.