Disciplinary measures are appropriate

I am amazed at your apparent tolerance of wrong and over prescribing of antibiotics by doctors (The Pharmaceutical Journal 2015;295:163). You mildly question the referral of such doctors to the General Medical Council rather than strongly support it. Janna Lawrence (The Pharmaceutical Journal 2015;295:171) reports the pressure GPs feel to prescribe an antibiotic whenever a patient requests one. The point of putting a medicine on the prescription-only list is to ensure that professional judgement rather than patient whim is the deciding factor. That patients may misunderstand the concept of antibiotic resistance is hardly relevant. If they wish to understand it there is sufficient information on the internet, if not they should simply be required to defer to professional knowledge.

I was instructed in the causes and dangers of antibiotic resistance on my BPharm course in 1963. If a GP does not understand this now, 50 years and much more instruction later, or irresponsibly ignores it, disciplinary measures are surely appropriate.

John Turner

Lymington,

Hampshire