VETPARTNERS has underlined its commitment to the responsible use of veterinary antibiotics by revealing a continued reduction across its UK practices.
VetPartners is celebrating a year-on-year reduction in antibiotic use after continued efforts to progress patient care and significant activities to enable the responsible prescribing of these drugs across its practices.
Data included in our newly published 2023 Antibiotics Stewardship Report shows the use of antibiotics in the group’s UK practices has declined for a second successive year.
VetPartners is committed to progressing the responsible use of antibiotics in its veterinary practices amid the ongoing global threat of antimicrobial resistance and damage to the environment.
The data contained in the latest Antibiotics Stewardship Report was collected via audit, HR and purchasing information. Since 2021, the data shows a 22.6% reduction overall in the amount of antibiotics purchased per full-time equivalent vet.
The report has been published to coincide with World AMR Awareness Week, which runs from November 18th to 24th.
All species groups – small animal, farm and equine – across VetPartners practices showed a reduction in the use of antibiotics. Significant work has also been undertaken around antibiotic selection as many conditions require the use of these drugs and preserving the high-priority critically important antibiotics is a also a key activity of this work.
The fresh data will enable VetPartners to explore other options to reduce, refine and replace antibiotics for the treatment of veterinary patients without compromising outcomes.
Among the initiatives VetPartners has introduced to support a reduction in the use of antibiotics are:
- A CPD course to support small animal practice teams in the responsible use of Cefovecin in cats, exploring scenarios where other antibiotics could be appropriately used.
- Auditing of purchasing data for Ceftiofur and Enrofloxacin across equine practices to enable teams to benchmark and explore, where appropriate, alternative methods of treatment while still protecting patient outcomes.
- New resources on identifying cases where the increased use of NSAIDs can help us refine the use of antibiotics on farm and activities furthering our work on the responsible use of antibiotics at lambing time.
VetPartners Director of Clinical Research and Excellence in Practice Dr Rachel Dean believes the latest reduction in the use of antibiotics is another important step forward in tackling a global issue.
Dr Dean said: “Antimicrobial resistance is a threat to humans, animals, plants and the environment, and it is important that everyone works together to preserve the effectiveness of these drugs that are so important.
“Over the past two years, VetPartners have been looking closely at how many antibiotics we use, when we use them and where we have variations in use, which enables us to see how we can appropriately reduce what we use, or change the antibiotic we use, or replace with another healthcare intervention.
“Our work in ensuring we use antibiotics in the most responsible way possible and progress our care will continue. We want to move forward in a progressive way with how we use these really important drugs to look after them for the future for animal health, human health and the planet.
“We are progressing in an evidence-based way and everything we do is patient-focused to ensure we deliver high quality care.”
To contact the VetPartners Clinical Board, please email clinical.board@vetpartners.co.uk
For media enquiries, please contact Amanda Little, VetPartners PR and Communications Director. Email amanda.little@vetpartners.co.uk
