A NEW report showing the use of veterinary antibiotics in VetPartners practices will help to transform the care of patients and promote responsible use throughout the profession.
Data included in VetPartners’ newly published 2022 Antibiotics Stewardship Report reveals a steady reduction in the use of antibiotics in the veterinary group’s UK practices.
VetPartners wants to maintain the momentum in progressing the responsible use of antibiotics in veterinary practice amid the ongoing global threat of antimicrobial resistance and damage to the environment.
The new data has been collected by their Clinical Board and will enable the group to monitor the use of antibiotics as well as progress other options to replace antibiotics for the management and the prevention of disease in veterinary patients.
Dr Rachel Dean, VetPartners Director of Clinical Research and Excellence in Practice, believes the data provides an important step forward in monitoring the use of antibiotics for the whole of the profession.
Speaking at the launch of the VetPartners 2022 Antibiotics Stewardship Report, Dr Dean said: “Our report is full of all the different activities we’ve done over the last 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 healthcare 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.
“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.”
Part of the new data monitoring involved measuring the amount of antibiotics purchased in relation to the number of vets working in VetPartners practices during 2021 and 2022.
Dr Dean added: “I’m so proud of the people who have contributed to the data collection, the activities we’ve then implemented in practices to help us progress what we do. We do this in an evidence-based way and remain patient-focused and make sure we deliver high quality care while looking after these drugs that are important to us all.
“We now have a way of seeing how much antibiotics we use in veterinary practice and the data suggests we are using fewer over time, which is great. It also shows variation between practices, which means we can all learn new different ways of doing things together.
“Antibiotics are amazing but they won’t continue to be so if as a global community we don’t use them more responsibly. Bugs are becoming more resistance to the use of antibiotics so we need to use the right drug in the right way, at the right time.
“We have a way of monitoring our antibiotic use and are actively doing various things to look after them. We would like other members of the profession to share their ideas and help us progress practice together.”
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
