Minutes from the Treasury have revealed the Government’s response to the Public Accounts Committee’s report on AMR.
The report was critical of the work of recent governments to tackle AMR, claiming the targets of the previous the previous National AMR Action Plan were overwhelmingly unmet, while the current iteration lacks ambition. It set out a number of recommendations to correct the current trajectory.
The Government have agreed with all of the report’s recommendations and have established target implementation dates. These include:
- DHSC and Defra should review progress against the AMR targets by late 2025 and at regular intervals after this to decide whether to increase the range and ambition of the targets to control AMR. Target implementation date: Winter 2025
- DHSC and Defra should publish a regular update on their progress against the AMR targets and commitments. Target implementation date: Winter 2025
- DHSC, NHS England and UKHSA should set out how they intend to make demonstrable progress in the use of diagnostic tools, including under the Pharmacy First Scheme, over the next two years. Target implementation date: Spring 2027
In explaining their progress in achieving the latter recommendation, the Government notes their hosting of the cross-sector ‘Moving Forwards Infection Diagnostics’ events series (of which BIVDA is a key participant) and other programmes, and states that a rapid review pipeline to identify optimal tests within the market and assess how existing diagnostics can be optimised is also being produced.
Moreover, UKHSA are exploring rapid laboratory tests to assess the efficacy of different therapeutic approaches, while pilot schemes to gather evidence on clinical impact of point-of-care tests are being scoped for several primary care patient pathways, including community pharmacy, and should be launched shortly.
BIVDA welcomes this development, particularly the creation of target implementation dates. We will support the Government in any way that is required to fulfil these targets, while also holding them to account if target reporting or delivery is inadequate.
In a meeting last week with Professor Sir Chris Whitty, we were encouraged to hear the Chief Medical Officer reaffirm that AMR remained a critical priority for the Government.
