The Government has provided an update regarding the progression of the 2024 – 2029 National AMR Action Plan, a year on from its release. The plan’s headline target is to reduce antibiotic use in humans by 5% from the 2019 baseline. This update lays out case studies, developed over the last 12 months, which demonstrate specific instances of success.
On diagnostics, it is fair to conclude that progress has been relatively slow and we hope to see greater advances in the coming years. However, some modest gains have been noted through the following case studies:
- The government has continued to convene the ‘Moving Infection Diagnostics Forwards’ series of events, organised in part by BIVDA, which includes key stakeholders such as NHS England and NIHR. These aim to define clinical needs, barriers and facilitators in infection diagnostics and have resulted in the initial development of target product profiles (TPPs) for urinary tract infection (UTI), respiratory tract infection, and sepsis diagnostics, as well as leveraging £5 million in research funding for innovative diagnostics by informing the PACE-AMR 2024 Diagnostic Innovation funding call.
- The PA-AST System (winner of last year’s £10 million Longitude Prize) is being piloted in care homes in the DISCO UTI study, and via the TOUCAN study in GP settings, as researchers seek to evaluate new rapid tests for diagnosing UTIs in GP practices.
- The NIHR Health Protection Research Unit are developed diagnostic decision-support tools to support bedside identification of bacterial infection and to inform IV-to-oral switches.
- On the antimicrobial stewardship front, the Blood Culture Pathway Optimisation (BCPO) programme has improved care for patients with severe bloodstream infections by enabling faster, more accurate diagnosis through education, training, and action plans. NHS England is conducting the first national BCPO audit to establish baseline performance, supported by national engagement and an e-learning package developed with BSAC, completed by nearly 1,000 staff by May 2025.
Implementation and uptake remain huge issues, with plans to scale diagnostic testing to mitigate the impact of AMR still underdeveloped. BIVDA will support the Government in addressing these challenges as, without tangibly ensuring diagnostics are part of the backbone of AMR control, ambitions to significantly reduce unnecessary antibiotic use will remain unfulfilled.
