He said: “Public Health England's report highlights the link between the rising use of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance, a problem that affects us all. Antibiotics are a finite resource - the more we use them, the less effective they become. It is everyone's responsibility to treat them as a precious resource, only to be prescribed and taken when absolutely necessary.

Research at the Centre for Academic Primary Care at the University of Bristol aims to help policy makers tease out the reasons for the increase in primary care prescribing highlighted by PHE's report, find suitable alternatives to reduce our dependence on antibiotics and help clinicians and patients make smarter decisions about when they are necessary."