Perception of Medical Practitioners on Antibiotic Prescribing by Pharmacists
DEPARTMENT OF PHARM
ACY
UNIVERSI
TY OF MA
LTA
Maresca Attard Pizzuto*, Anthony Serracino Inglott, Lilian M. Azzopardi
Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Malta, Msida, Malta
email: maresca.attard-pizzuto@um.edu.mt
Department of Pharmacy
University of Malta
INTRODUCTION
Antibiotic prescribing is a multi-stage process which requires knowledge of pathogen characteristics as well as patient and
1
drug characteristics. Optimising antimicrobial use through appropriate selection, driven by a multidisciplinary team,
improves patient safety by achieving a desired clinical outcome, reducing harm to patients and decreasing potential for
2
selection of resistant strains of pathogens. Collaboration between medical practitioners and pharmacists, each with their
3
respective expertise, can lead to major improvements in patient care.
AIMS
To assess prescribing practices by physicians and to describe their perception on competencies of pharmacist prescribing
and risks associated by such prescribing.
METHOD

Which antibiotics are mostly appropriate to be prescribed by a
pharmacist?
A questionnaire to study medical practitioners’
perceptions on antibiotic prescribing by pharmacists
in
Do you favour prescribing rights to be given to local pharmacists to
start prescribing a limited number of antibiotics?
The questionnaire was validated using the Delphi
Why are you against pharmacists being given limited antibiotic
prescribing rights?
and
to
establish
pharmacists’
contribution
prescribing and dispensing antibiotics was developed.

technique
4
and
disseminated
to
376
medical
Do you agree that physicians will experience a decrease in the
number of patients if pharmacists were to prescribe antibiotics and
thus be affected financially?
practitioners practising in primary and secondary care
in Malta.

Questions
asked
include
rating
pharmacists’
Table 1: Questions included in the questionnaire
competence to prescribe broad-spectrum antibiotics to
treat common infections on a 5-point Likert scale.
RESULTS


30%
154 medical practitioners answered the questionnaire,
25%
obtaining a response rate of 41%.
20%
Pharmacists are regarded as being competent to treat
15%
common infections by 8% of practitioners, 37% have no
10%
opinion and 14% think pharmacists are not competent
22%
15%
15%
Gentamicin
(n=137)
Chloramphenicol
(n=137)
5%
at all.

24%
0%
Fusidic acid
(n=144)
Fusidic acid (24%) is perceived by medical practitioners
Mupirocin
(n=140)
as the most appropriate topical antibiotic to be
Figure 1: Most appropriate topical antibiotics to be prescribed by
pharmacists as perceived by medical practitioners *
prescribed by pharmacists (Figure 1).

pharmacists are given prescribing rights.

*Medical practitioners answered this question according to their speciality
The majority of respondents (68%) do not agree that

When asked whether medical practitioners will experience
Reasons given are that pharmacists are not qualified to
a potential decrease in the number of patients if
clinically examine patients (78%), pharmacists do not
pharmacists were to prescribe antibiotics and thus be
have access to patient medical records (60%) and lack of
affected financially, 16% strongly agreed with the
privacy in local pharmacies (49%).
statement.
CONCLUSION
The results indicate that a number of medical practitioners do not have an opinion on pharmacist prescribing
antibiotics. Relevant patient risks if prescribing is undertaken by the pharmacist as opposed to other prescribers are not
clearly outlined by evidence-based justifications.
References
1. Lee CR, Lee JH, Kang LW, Jeong BC, Lee SH. Educational effectiveness, target, and content for prudent antibiotic use. BioMed Research International 2015; 13 pages.
2. Glowacki RC, Schwartz DN, Itokazu GS, Wisniewski MF, Kieszkowski P, Weinstein RA. Clinical Infectious Disease 2003;37:59-64.
3. Azhar S, Hassali MA, Ibrahim MIM. Doctors’ perception and expectations of the role of the pharmacist in Punjab, Pakistan. Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research 2010;9(3):205-222.
4. Attard Pizzuto M, Serracino-Inglott A, Azzopardi LM. Risks in Pharmacist Prescribing. American College of Clinical Pharmacy Virtual Conference, May 2014.