TARGET

Treat Antibiotics Responsibly: Guidance, Education and Tools

Welcome!

Meet Andi Biotic!

TARGET Resource Development

Recordings and Slide Decks for 2024/25 Webinars

TARGET have successfully completed their 2024/25 webinar series with the RCGP, featuring insights from our expert speakers and panelists on the following topics: 

1. Patient perceptions of infections & antibiotics: insights from national surveys 
2. Navigating antimicrobial stewardship for new and early career prescribers 
3. Managing recurrent UTI and reviewing long-term and repeat antibiotic therapy 

These sessions provided practical advice to enhance your practice and optimise antimicrobial prescribing. If you missed or would like to revisit any of the sessions, the recordings and slide decks are now available on the TARGET Toolkit.

The webinars were rated highly by attendees, with 96% to 98% saying that they would recommend to colleagues.

Recurrent UTI How To Guide

Acne and COPD Checklists

TARGET have published checklists to be used alongside our COPD and Acne ‘How To…?’ guides. These are designed to support a more structured and effective clinical review of antimicrobial prescribing, boosting antimicrobial stewardship.

TARGET Resource Updates

Leaflet Translations

The translated TARGET patient information leaflets, available in 29 different languages, have now been updated! These refreshed versions are now fully aligned with the latest updates made to our English leaflets. 

Coming soon: The updated Welsh leaflets will be published on the TARGET Toolkit at the end of this month, so be sure to keep an eye out!

If you haven't already, explore our new translated leaflets and share them with your networks.

• Self-care 
• UTI- women under 65 
• UTI- all adults 
• RTI 
• RTI- pictorial 

Management of Common Infections Summary Table- Recurrent UTI

The Antimicrobial prescribing summary table hosted on the TARGET toolkit has been updated to align with the changes to the NICE Urinary tract infection (recurrent): antimicrobial prescribing guidelines that were updated in December 2024.

This update provides more information on treatments to prevent recurrent UTI, including Methenamine Hippurate.

Events and Conferences

Antibiotic Guardian Shared Learning and Awards 2024/25

The Antibiotic Guardian Shared Learning and Awards Event will be running for the seventh time as an in-person event on Monday 9 June 2025. This event aims to share learning and celebrate achievements in tackling AMR, and is a great opportunity to network with peers and health professionals to share ideas on this global challenge. 

The UKHSA has announced the shortlisted entries for Antibiotic Guardian Shared Learning Awards, find out more through the link below. 

Connect and share on social media: 

@AG_AwardsandSL 

#AntibioticGuardian  

 If you have any questions regarding the Awards or your attendance, please contact antibioticguardian@ukhsa.gov.uk.  

UKHSA Conference 2024/25

The third annual UKHSA Conference, held at Manchester Central on 25-26 March, brought together up to 3,000 public health professionals, researchers, policymakers, and industry representatives. The conference featured over 50 sessions and workshops, with more than 130 speakers. Key topics included local and national outbreak response, health impacts of air pollution and climate change, AMR and addressing health inequalities. 

New Publications Relevant to TARGET

UTI Diagnostic Guidance

UKHSA and NHSE have published an update of the UTI diagnostic quick reference tools. This review was informed by a new literature review, stakeholder input, and revised accessibility guidance.

The main changes to the tool include:

• updated algorithm design with the addition of text summaries of the recommendations
• removal of the diagnostic decision tool for children under 16 years (as covered by the updated UTI in under 16s : diagnosis and management from National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE))
• separating the previous decision tool for adults over the age of 65 years and those with suspected catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) into 2 separate algorithms

Assessing the impact of using a patient counselling prompt—the TARGET antibiotic checklist in England’s community pharmacies (https://doi.org/10.1093/jacamr/dlaf018) 

Preventing and managing urinary tract infections: Exploring interventions and strategies implemented by NHS commissioning organisations in English primary care, 2017–2022 (https://doi.org/10.1177/17571774251330536) 

Reducing antibiotic prescribing rates in young children in an outpatient primary care setting—a systemwide quality improvement initiative (https://doi.org/10.1093/jacamr/dlaf041) 

Implementation of a National Antimicrobial Stewardship Training Programme for General Practice: A Case Study (https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics14020148) 

The TARGET Team

Dr Donna Lecky, Head of the Primary Care and Interventions Unit

Donna has a background in microbiology research, programme management and resources development.

Emily Cooper, TARGET Programme Manager

Emily has a background in public health and nursing. She supports the management of the TARGET programme as well as national guidance and research around urinary tract infections.

Cath Hayes, TARGET Project Manager

Cath has a Master's in Public Health and is currently completing a PhD part-time focusing on antimicrobial stewardship for ear infections in primary care alongside her role as a Project Manager for the TARGET Antibiotics Toolkit.  

Jade Meadows, Research Programme Manager

Jade has a background in clinical trials and research management and is supporting the TARGET training roll-out and evaluation. 

Liam Clayton, TARGET Project Support Officer

Liam has a Master's in Sport and Exercise Science and is supporting with the development and update of TARGET resources and with research on urinary tract infections. 

Ming Lee, TARGET Project Support Officer

Ming has a background in psychology and the development of interventions. She is supporting projects in community pharmacy and the roll out of TARGET training. 

Obiageli Okolie, Research Project Support Officer

Oby has a PhD in Public Health with a focus on antimicrobial resistance. She is supporting TARGET and e-Bug workstreams. 

Emily Whitehorne, TARGET Research Assistant

Emily has a background in psychology and is currently studying for a Master’s in Public Health. She is supporting with the development of TARGET resources and with research on the attitudes and behaviours of young people.

Camilla Stevenson, RCGP Project Manager

Camilla manages the RCGP's portfolio of quality improvement projects, which includes TARGET, QOF QI and GP Excellence.