Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has undertaken research on the impact on patient illness of antibiotic courses prescribed by GPs for (a) five and (b) seven days.

The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR has funded several studies on the impact of duration of antibiotic courses on patient illness, as well as antimicrobial resistance.

For example, in 2022 we funded the Cellulitis Optimal Antibiotic Treatment (COAT) study investigating whether a short course (five days) of flucloxacillin was non-inferior to a standard course (seven days) in terms of pain over days six to 14, in patients with leg cellulitis in primary care.