Strep A antibiotics shortages: Patients should travel if they can't get prescriptions, says leading doctor

Dr Tom Black, chair of the British Medical Association’s Northern Ireland committee, said patients are being encouraged to travel to find amoxicillin and benzylpenicillin if their local chemist has run out.

Speaking to the News Letter as the Belfast Trust moved to postpone routine procedures at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children following a surge in the number of children presenting with bacterial and viral infections, Dr Black revealed the extra strain that strep A infection worries are placing on Northern Ireland’s already-stricken health service.

The Trust, meanwhile, said 227 children attended its emergency department on Tuesday, and that the number of children attending with symptoms of bacterial and viral infections has increased.

“Unfortunately, we have taken the very difficult decision to postpone all routine procedures at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children to allow our staff to care for those children with serious or time critical illness at this time,” a spokesperson said before apologising for the “distress”.

Dr Black, meanwhile, said: “What we’re hearing from GPs all throughout Northern Ireland is huge numbers contacting them about that one thing – 50 calls in a morning. GPs are seeing dozens of patients per half-day to assess them. We’re hearing of hundreds attending emergency departments with concerns about strep infections as well. In terms of prevalence, 20% of the population carries strep infection as a commensal in their throat or skin. The actual bug is everywhere. The number of strep infections – we all talk about strep throats – is a very common disease. The number of patients with scarlet fever is in the hundreds in Northern Ireland at any one time. The number of IGAS infections is very small in Northern Ireland.”

On the additional burden this is placing on the health service, he said: “It’s about trying to find those very serious cases among the tens of thousands attending. That’s what we do, that’s our job. It’s been added to by the covid patients, the influenza A patients, the RSV patients, the croop patients, the varicella or chickenpox patients, a vomiting and diarrhoea bug that’s been doing the rounds, a lot of tonsilitis which may be strep or a different source of infection.”

He continued: “In total, we have probably around seven infections at a higher rate than usual. This is obviously coming out of the covid situation where these infections are now spreading among people because of closer contacts, and there’s also something about the fact that we’ve gone two years with lower rates of infection other than covid because of the lockdowns.”

Dr Black also revealed the difficulties some patients are experiencing when trying to pick up prescriptions for antibiotic medicines used to treat strep A infections.

"GPs have patients returning with prescriptions that have been issued, unable to access Amoxicilin and Benzylpenicillin,” he said. “What we’re asking them to do is increase their search across a bigger area. These prescriptions are available in some places. They are also under strain in some places.”