ArticleThe Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy2025
Clinical outcomes following acute sore throat assessment at community pharmacy versus general practice: a retrospective, longitudinal, data linkage study.
Article in The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Beyond the Dispensary: Pharmacists' Perspectives on the Responsible Implementation of Emerging Clinical, Digital, and Ethically Sensitive Roles.Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Evolution of community pharmacy services in the European Union and beyond: a cross-country survey of 33 national pharmacy organisations.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2026Article
- Antibiotic prescribing by non-medical healthcare professionals in primary care: a systematic review of effects on antibiotic use, patient experience, interprofessional relationships and job satisfaction.JAC-antimicrobial resistance · 2026Review
- Assessment of the Effectiveness of Pharmaceutical Advice in Selected Digestive Disorders: Perspectives of Patients and Pharmacists as Part of a Pilot "Minor Ailments" Service.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Effectiveness of Pharmaceutical Counseling in Sore Throat Management According to Patients and Pharmacists.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- [Distribution of community pharmacies and primary healthcare centers in Portugal: a cross-sectional analysis].Farmaceuticos comunitarios · 2025Article
- Comparison of antibiotic provision associated with acute sore throat symptom management in community pharmacies in Wales and England: a natural policy experiment.The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy · 2025Article
- Yonder: Antidepressant follow-up, NHS app use, sore throats in community pharmacy, and dementia and anticholinergics.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundTo date, no research has compared longer-term outcomes (antibiotic provision; re-consultations; hospital admissions for quinsy; cost-effectiveness) following presentation with acute sore throat at general practice (GP) versus newer, pharmacy-led services.
methodsA retrospective, longitudinal cohort study of sore throat consultations between 1 November 2018 and 28 February 2020 either with the Wales pharmacy-led sore throat test and treat (STTT) service or with a healthcare professional at GP. Individual-level pharmacy consultation data from the national Choose Pharmacy IT application were securely uploaded to the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank and linked to routinely collected, anonymized, population-scale, individual-level, anonymized health and administrative data.
resultsOf 72 736 index consultations, 6495 (8.9%) were with STTT and 66 241 (91.1%) with GP. Antibiotic provision at the index consultation was 1382 (21%) with STTT and 25 506 (39%) with GP [adjusted odds ratio (AOR), 0.30; 95% CI, 0.27 to 0.32]. Antibiotic provision within 28 days of index occurred in 1820 (28%) STTT and 26 369 (40%) GP consultations (AOR, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.41 to 0.47). GP re-consultation rate within 28 days of index date was 21% (n = 1389) with STTT compared with 7.4% (n = 4916) with GP (AOR, 3.8; 95% CI, 3.5 to 4.1). Coding limitations may lead to overestimates of GP re-consultations rates in the STTT group. Hospital admissions for quinsy were rare in both STTT (n = 20, 0.31%) and GP (n = 274, 0.41%) (AOR, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.43 to 1.1). STTT was less costly than consultation with GP.
conclusionsThe pharmacy-led STTT service is safe, cost-effective, and contributes to antimicrobial stewardship.
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