Painkillers and antibiotics are actually making your child’s infections worse, says Australia’s infectious disease experts. Picture: istock

For mother of two Sally Anne-Judd, the ruling from the Australia’s expert medical colleges was tough advice. She has a friend whose child was recently hospitalised for two days when an infection attacked the bones in the ear.

Sally Anne says she tries to avoid using antibiotics but is worried the new guidelines might discourage parents from seeking medical advice.

“It’s hard when reports make you feel you are overreacting when you want to give your

kids medication,” she says.

Infectious diseases experts, however, warn that it’s overuse of these precious drugs that is returning Australian health care to the pre-antibiotic age when we have to use surgery to remove infections rather than a pill.

WHEN A SCRATCH COULD KILL

Antibiotics should no longer be automatically prescribed for ear infections, a medical body says. Picture: iStockSource:Supplied

Austin Hospital’s Professor Lindsay Grayson told a recent Senate inquiry a patient who came in to hospital for a minor surgical procedure on their wrist ended up having their bowel removed.

The patient went home with a colostomy bag because they picked up a superbug resistant to antibiotics while in hospital, he told the committee.

It’s overuse of antibiotics for minor infections that is fuelling the explosion of these resistant infections that are killing Australians.

EXPLORE MORE: The antibiotic apocalypse — it’s here, now

The recommendation that antibiotics should not routinely be prescribed for an ear infection was part of some confronting advice from the Choosing Wisely campaign this week. Fourteen medical colleges ruled that 61 tests, treatments and procedures should be limited because

they were unnecessary or dangerous or were wasting precious health dollars.

With Medicare now costing almost $30 billion a year, Australians are used to governments trying to restrict rebates to make budget savings. But this time it is the medical profession itself volunteering to elimiate waste.

A KIND CUT

The Choosing Wisely campaign argues many X-rays are unecessary. Picture: iStockSource:Supplied

NPS MedicineWise chief Dr Lyn Weekes’ organisation is overseeing the campaign which has signed up nearly two thirds of Australia’s medical colleges to a regimen of cutting unnecessary treatments.

It’s the second time in a year doctors have offered up a range of medical treatments they say are being overused and if the new guidelines are adhered to hundreds of millions of dollars could be

saved.

There are now 86 medical treatments doctors medicos are trying to limit.

NPS MedicineWise GP Dr Andrew Boyden says the campaign is modelled on a

similar exercise in the United States.

Advances in medical research come thick and fast and it can sometimes be overwhelming for doctors to keep pace with changes in what is considered best practice, this campaign helps distil those changes for doctors.

“The evidence that has evolved around treatment is enormous, we sometimes need to take a breath and think about what is recommended,” he says.

The result is a new set of guidelines that turns what many of us thought was accepted medical practice on its head.

CRUEL TO BE KIND

Reducing a fever may actually be restraining the body’s own immune system, a top Australian medical body says.Source:Supplied

Mothers who reach for pain relievers to reduce a child’s temperature are being told new evidence shows fever is good and stops viruses and bacteria multiplying.

They should only use medication to reduce a fever if it’s making their child uncomfortable or distressed.

When you’ve got a chest infection that’s hard to beat doctors usually order a chest x-ray.

More than 140,000 chest X-rays are ordered every year, it’s the most frequent image ordered by GPs but Choosing Wisely says it exposes patients to unnecessary radiation and rarely changes the treatment patients get and doctors should think twice before ordering one.

The campaign also asks patients and doctors to question whether ultrasounds for thyroid complaints, groin hernias, X-rays for lower back pain and endoscopy for gastric band patients are needed.

Doctors believe almost 40 per cent of X-rays for foot and ankle trauma would not be needed if medicos followed proper diagnostic protocols.

Colonoscopies to check for bowel cancer cost $3000 per procedure and Choosing Wisely estimates over one in seven are unnecessary and a much cheaper faecal blood test could have been used instead.

It warns colonoscopies are not without risk with some patients dying from complications when their bowel is perforated during the test.

TARGETED TREATMENTS

Most of the world’s antibiotics have lost their punch through over-use.Source:Supplied

Dr Andrew Boyden says more is not always better when it comes to medicine.

It is important to ensure the benefit of any medical intervention outweighs the risk before racing off for a test, he says.

Doctors have come up with the list of treatments that should be restricted but Choosing Wisely wants patients involved in the discussion too.

Patients need to be aware of the latest medical guidelines so they are not shocked when doctors advise against a test or a medicine, says Dr Boyden.

Surveys have found doctors often prescribe antibiotics for the common cold or a virus even though they know it won’t help simply because they feel pressured to do so by their patients.

If patients can be educated about what’s best practice before they see their doctor they might have different expectations when they see their GP, Dr Boyden says.

Sally Anne Judd says she’s been aware that mothers shouldn’t instinctively reach for medication to control a fever and she trusts her family doctor when they recommend against using antibiotics.

However, she says her friend’s experience with an ear infection that got out of control shows that sometimes a mother’s instinct is more important than a blanket ruling about antibiotic use.