Willows Veterinary Centre and Referral Service in Solihull is part of veterinary group Linnaeus, and was one of the runners up in the 2023 Antibiotic Amnesty. The hospital secured the return of over 200 antibiotic tablets thanks to its efforts in raising awareness of the campaign with clients.

Veterinary Nurse and Pharmacy Team Leader at Willows, Charlotte Robinson, says: “We first took part in the Antibiotic Amnesty pilot in 2022, so in 2023 we took some of the learnings from the pilot and successfully promoted the campaign at a greater scale. We created posters for consult rooms and the waiting room and where possible, had discussions with owners to urge them to return any antibiotics that were no longer needed.
“We also used our social media channels to regularly post about the campaign. Our team made great use of the Amnesty’s online campaign toolkit, which was really helpful and provided lots of useful information and tools. This year, we hope to implement even more resources, including labels on prescription bags, to support in make the Amnesty even more successful.

“Across the hospital we shared content about the Antibiotics Amnesty with the whole team, including information about the importance of responsible pharmaceutical stewardship and what it means for us as a hospital. It also detailed how the pharmacy team can play our part, and how our efforts will help protect our families, clients, pets and the environment from antimicrobial resistance (AMR).”

The team at Willows saw a great response from its clients, says Charlotte: “Our conversations with clients led to some of them saying that they had their own ‘human’ medications at home, so we encouraged them to return these to their local NHS pharmacy for safe disposal. As a referral hospital, we also encouraged clients to return medications to their primary practice; in addition to antibiotics returned to Willows, we have hopefully increased the number of returns to other practices too.”

Talking about the importance of supporting such initiatives, Charlotte adds: “The veterinary profession has a duty of care to prescribe responsibly and we take it very seriously. We should all be mindful of the way in which antibiotics are used and prescribed, especially using diagnostics to ensure the correct antibiotics are prescribed or, in some cases, using diagnostics to rule out the need for antibiotics entirely.

“The Antibiotic Amnesty helps to engage with clients on this important topic and hold meaningful conversations around AMR, as well as encouraging them to return antibiotics they no longer need to avoid misuse. The campaign also educates owners on the correct way to dispose of medications to protect our environment.”
The team at Willows is committed to the antibiotic stewardship pledge to help support the hospital and clients when dispensing and discussing medications. Last year, Willows took part in a school ambassador scheme, with members of the hospital going to schools to talk about AMR. Charlotte explains: “ As part of our visit, the children took part in an exercise to show how bacteria can spread by shaking hands and watching how far the glitter can spread from person to person from the initial source – this really helped bring the issue to life.

“Taking part in the Antibiotic Amnesty is so straightforward using the resources which the RUMA Companion Animal and Equine Alliance provides to help create engagement and encouragement for clients, such information sheets. There is plenty of guidance for the practice team to use as well.

“It is extremely important for everyone, not just our profession and clients, to be aware of the dangers we face with antibiotic resistance and what we can do to ensure we can still access the antibiotics we may need in the future. For clients, campaigns like this help us have those all-important conversations about why we may not prescribe their pet antibiotics straight away, but take other steps first as they may not even be necessary. Sometimes clients may arrive with the expectation of going home with antibiotics, which is not always appropriate, so explaining why and raising awareness of AMR and the consequences is an important part of our role.

“We are taking part in the Amnesty again this year and hope to put even more resources in place to promote greater awareness and engagement with our clients. Antibiotic stewardship is something we continue to promote throughout the year to ensure the awareness is ongoing.”