Doctors reviewed more than 60 most commonly sought medical treatments and found out patients are treating themselves with unnecessary medical treatments. Thus, they released recommendations which parents will likely to balk. One of the recommendation is children aged 2-12 with ear infections shouldn't be treated with antibiotics.
As part of the NPS Choosing Wisely campaign, 14 medical colleges have nominated the inappropriate treatments that people most commonly sought in a bid to improve medical practice. Likewise, the movement also aims to reduce health care costs.
Hence, doctors are now encouraging all the people to think whether scans, tests and treatments were necessary. Moreover, they are also recommending for the parents to use antibiotics appropriately to reduce antibiotic resistance, which is currently on the rise.
Crackdown on unnecessary medical treatments, doctors advised not to prescribe antibiotics for ear infections. #9News pic.twitter.com/wgdGSHzAti
— Nine News Australia (@9NewsAUS) Marso 15, 2016
As part of the recommendation, doctors suggested parents shouldn't give antibiotics to children with ear infections because antibiotics could not reduce pain. Likewise, common antibiotics are now becoming ineffective.
Royal Australian College General Practitioners' president Dr. Frank Jones said instead of giving antibiotics, parents should give their children paracetamol or ibuprofen to control the pain. In addition, he said antibiotics should only be given to a child with a fever who is vomiting or lethargic.
Furthermore, doctors recommended not to give paracetamol or ibuprofen to bring down children's temperature when they are ill. "The benefits of fever in slowing the growth and replication of bacteria and viruses are well documented," the Australian College of Nursing said, according to news.com.au.
The campaign also addressed the practice of prescribing antibiotics for infants. The Choosing Wisely said infants shouldn't be given antibiotics because antibiotics are "low value" and antibiotics can be dangerous for the child's health. Moreover, overuse of antibiotics is fueling the rise of resistance to the antibiotics.
The group is also calling for the stop of X-rays of foot injuries. And other recommendations include not to prescribe antibiotics for upper respiratory tract infections and antibiotics should not be used for more than seven days without review. Moreover, not to request imaging for patients with non-specific lower back pain.
Dr. Jones said he hopes the list of unnecessary procedures and the treatments like the antibiotics prescriptions will help for a better conversation between patients and doctors. "I think it will change the perception of what patients require from their doctor," he said.
