Dr. Colm Henry:

One of the core risks in healthcare globally is the inappropriate, excessive use of antibiotics.

It is not just inappropriate but it causes harm through the evolution of resistance to antibiotics. Then we see the emergence of bugs, we sometimes call them hospital-acquired infections, that cause great harm and disruption in hospitals because of closure of beds, the need to isolate patients etc. The Deputy might have heard of MRSA, Clostridium difficile, and carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales, CPE, and other bugs with acronyms like that. They have evolved because of antibiotic use, and sometimes excessive antibiotic use. The messaging we have through one arm of the HSE which works in tandem with the sepsis campaign - it is called AMRIC, antimicrobial resistance and infection control, and is led by Dr. Eimear Brannigan - is to try to harmonise messages that might seem to be in conflict. It is a delicate balance that we have to try to achieve and to say to the population at large that we do not need to give antibiotics for every single illness and doing so causes harm but at the same time, we need to make sure that for those cases that need antibiotics, there is a heightened sense of awareness of the deteriorating symptoms and signs among healthcare professionals and among the general public of which people have to filter through to get early treatment and recognition. I hope that conveys the somewhat complex nature of the message. It is not quite as simple as trying to reduce it down to something like the acronym that we have in the stroke campaign, FAST: face, arms, speech, time, for example.