Publish date: 18 November 2025
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Today marks the start of World Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Awareness Week 2025 (18 - 24 November 2025), raising awareness and increasing understanding of the global issue. Effective use of antibiotics is essential for patients to recover from bacterial infections, and optimising their use can improve outcomes for patients. Coinciding with the annual international campaign, Lancashire and South Cumbria Critical Care Network has developed a new prescribing guideline for how antibiotics are prescribed and administered for critical care patients across the region that will save lives of patients in our region with severe infections, such as sepsis. This follows the publication of a randomised clinical trial in 2024 (BLING III) and subsequent position statement from the British Infection Association and Intensive Care Society last month to administer these antibiotics by continuous infusions, where possible. A working group was set up in September 2024 to develop a regional guideline with input from pharmacists, nurses, clinical scientists, consultant microbiologists and critical care doctors to produce new guidance, which will be launched across Lancashire and South Cumbria from this week and adopted and implemented at different critical care units over the next few weeks. Shaun Morgan, the lead pharmacist for the Lancashire and South Cumbria ​Critical Care Network, said: “We are proud of the guideline we have developed here in Lancashire and South Cumbria. A lot of effort has been put in by the clinical teams at each of our units, with local leads Andrew Duncan (Blackpool Teaching Hospitals), Jenny Oakley and Kelly Newby (University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay), to ensure we administer antibiotics in an optimal way for critically unwell adults.” Dr Hisham Ziglam, a consultant in infection and antimicrobial stewardship lead at East Lancashire Hospitals, said: “In the management of critically ill adults, the continuous infusion of time-dependent antibiotics represents a key therapeutic strategy for optimising pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic targets. “This approach is championed by our clinical team to ensure sustained antibiotic concentrations above the bacteria’s minimum inhibitory concentration throughout the dosing interval. Our concerted effort to implement and standardise this practice underscores our commitment to improving clinical outcomes, enhancing bacterial eradication, and potentially reducing the emergence of antimicrobial resistance. This protocol is a testament to our multidisciplinary focus on delivering evidence-based, precision medicine to our most vulnerable patients.”
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