What antimicrobial stewardship strategies do NHS commissioning organizations implement in primary care in England?

National antimicrobial resistance improvement schemes, in particular the NHS England Quality Premium, have influenced CCG improvement priorities. Most CCGs now report successful improvement strategies including the use of both local and national antibiotic prescribing data to motivate improvements; these should be continued and extended to out-of-hours providers. As local audit data have helped to identify reasons for inappropriate prescribing and inform improvement planning, all organizations should adopt this strategy and include it in local quality improvement schemes, ensuring performance reporting to organizational board level.