Prescribing incomplete courses of antibiotics may give rise to drug-resistant bacteria, hospital pharmacists warn
Doctors are encouraging the development of drug-resistant superbugs by failing to prescribe proper courses of antibiotics, hospital pharmacists say. They have called on the Hong Kong Medical Association to educate its members.
The association admits doctors need to improve the way they prescribe antibiotics, but blames patients and health insurers for giving out incomplete courses of drugs.
More than half of several hundred patients surveyed by the Society of Hospital Pharmacists said they were not given full courses of antibiotics by their doctors.
The society's education director, William Chui Chun-ming, described the study's finding as worrying. It showed a 'significant percentage' of patients were given a course of antibiotics shorter than five to seven days, the recommended period for a complete course.
The society will release details of its findings later this month.
Mr Chui said: 'It is ironic that while doctors always ask patients not to abuse antibiotics, they are the ones improperly using the drugs. Doctors in the west ... always prescribe a five to seven-day course of antibiotics, but the practice in Hong Kong is only three days.
