All general practitioners who prescribed antibiotics to their patients in the past five years received a letter from Inami, the health insurance agency, this week.
The correspondence informed doctors of how frequently they prescribed these medicines, and if they adhered to treatment guidelines, as reported by De Standaard.
This letter constitutes just the first step. Those doctors who continue overprescribing antibiotics in the ensuing year will have to provide an explanation.
Doctors unable to give a satisfactory justification risk reprimands, ranging from a caution to the reimbursement of wrongly prescribed antibiotics. Deliberate offenders could receive a fine.
Antibiotic resistance: a rising health threat
Inami aims to question general practitioners’ antibiotic prescribing behaviours and created three indicators for this purpose.
The health insurance agency will examine if doctors prescribe too many antibiotics, how often traditional ones are recommended, and the frequency of prescribing non-advised types.
According to 2019 statistics, Belgian GPs prescribed antibiotics to an average of seven out of every ten patients. This figure must diminish by 43% by 2025.
This step is crucial, as antibiotic use bears weighty implications. Every year, over 35,000 people in Europe die from an infection caused by an antibiotic-resistant bacterium. The health impact in Europe from such resistance is as significant as that of influenza, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS combined.
