JOIN USThe study would be jointly conducted by the Union Health Ministry and a special task force, which has been set up for the purpose. Project coordinator and the surveillance team set up for the purpose in the selected tertiary care hospitals will implement the surveillance of antimicrobials.
The data generated will be used for intervention studies for rational use of antibiotics, a senior health ministry official told PTI. The first phase of the study will be conducted in three tertiary care hospitals under central government in Delhi. It will focus on studying the trends in antibiotic use in these hospitals of Delhi.
Later on, the study would also include peripheral health facilities as well as pharmacies to obtain community based data on antimicrobial usage. In the study, auditing of the pharmacies in the hospital, prescription of the practitioner as well as the pharmacies in the cities, districts and villages should be audited through a random selection basis.
The study will have a multi-disciplinary advisory committee of experts who will meet at regular intervals and their inputs will be helpful for implementation of the study.
The hospitals where the study would be started are Sucheta Kriplani Hospital, New Delhi, R M L Hospital, New Delhi and Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi.
The first phase of the study would be concluded in approximately three months but will be continued as surveillance. The fourth month data will be analysed for overall consumption and trends of antibiotic use. The data collection would include consumption of antibiotics in various departments, the medical store and prescription data.
The total consumption of all antibiotics used or consumed will be collected every month from in-patients issued to each department. Out-patients will be screened through exit interviews, which would be carried out at the pharmacy of the public hospital, and for each special clinic operating in the public hospitals.
For private hospitals, the data collectors will do exit interview for each speciality in their OPD days and time. Exit interviews would also be done of patients receiving any antibiotic at the chosen hospital, department or special clinic.