Antimicrobials: Drug Resistance

(asked on 16th October 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made towards introducing the recording of antimicrobial resistance as a cause of death on death certificates.


Answered by
Lord Markham Portrait
Lord Markham
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 25th October 2023

Medical practitioners are expected to state the cause of death on death certificates to the best of their knowledge and belief, including where a resistant infection was a contributory factor. Consistently citing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as a cause of death on the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD) could provide better data on the scale and impact of AMR and improve public awareness of the issue.

In November 2022, as part of the National Medical Examiner’s “Good Practice Series”, the Royal College of Pathologists published a paper to help medical examiner offices align with the UK AMR National Action Plan, and support surveillance of antimicrobial resistance. The paper asks medical examiners to encourage and educate those writing MCCDs to accurately record the organism responsible for the infection, whether it was resistant to microbial therapy, and whether the infection was hospital- or community-associated, where this is known. A copy of the paper is attached.

Reticulating Splines