How are we doing?

Open prescribing is a free to access platform that sucks out anonymised prescribing information for General Practices. Currently, they look at how many of our inhalers are so called MDIs (metered dose inhalers) and how much ‘7 day prescribing’ we do.

www.openprescribing.net/greenernhs

Medicine Packaging

Cardboard boxes can be recycled in your normal household collection. The medicine trays are a bit more complicated but it can be done!
Please check out Terracycle and find out where you can drop off yours.

www.terracycle.com/medicine-packet-uk

Antibiotic Resistance

What’s the problem?: Antibiotic overuse in farming and healthcare is leading to a public health crisis so large, yet we can’t even see it. Yet it is already with us- multi antibiotic resistant infections are already prevalent in hospital. We take it for granted, especially in the west, that if we get sick from a bacterial infection that there will be an antibiotic we can be given. But what if there wasn’t? What if we got sick and were told there was no treatment for us?

Antibiotics only work on bacterial infections, not viruses. We now realise that there are some of these infections where antibiotics might only reduce the time we are unwell- we would have likely got better without them.

So how can you help us?

• Please listen to us if we say antibiotics won’t work. It’s because exposure to antibiotics risks you becoming unwell from the treatment itself and we care about the threat that all of us face from antibiotic resistance. We can prevent it by not using them when they won’t work. GOV.UK Antibiotic Leaflet
• Please use self care for minor illnesses, you don’t often need to see a GP:
  • Self Help, Wellbeing Centre.
  • www.treatyourselfbetter.co.uk, www.selfcareforum.org By managing more minor illnesses yourself, you can reduce the amount of patient travel to the surgery and reduce our appointment waiting times.
• Worried about your child? When should I worry? Your guide to Coughs, Colds, Earache & Sore Throats
• Find out more about what you can do www.antibioticresearch.org.uk/what-can-i-do

Antibiotic Research UK describes the danger of antibiotic resistance to our environment and from overuse in farming www.antibioticresearch.org.uk/antibiotic-resistance-farming.