Running an antibiotic amnesty campaign

A beginners' guide

Who are your key stakeholders?
Why – engage with your key stakeholders
What and how – decide your campaign and raise awareness of it
Record the impact, review and revise plans for subsequent campaigns with feedback

1. Who are your key stakeholders?

Who needs to be involved to make the campaign a success?

Decide on the setting of your amnesty campaign – is it through community pharmacies, veterinary surgeries, universities or somewhere else?

Here are some examples from previous and current campaigns:

Community pharmacy

Liaise with chairs of local pharmaceutical committees (LPCs) – they’re a vital link to community pharmacies and you’ll need their support to publicise the campaign and make it successful
Contact your local NHS organisation – integrated care boards (ICBs) (England), health board (Scotland), or local health boards (Wales)
Contact your local NHS England pharmacy advisor – depending on the geographic footprint of your planned campaign, they’ll be in regular contact with the chairs of the LPCs in that area.

Veterinary surgeries

Most veterinary surgeries are part of larger companies with a regional or national footprint, and the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) Practice Standards Scheme mandates that member practices encourage medicines returns.

Find out who the antimicrobial stewardship or environmental sustainability lead is for the larger parent organisation and get in touch with your ideas. The veterinary profession is very aware of the threat of AMR and will probably be keen to support the campaign. Similarly to community pharmacies, veterinary surgeries are required to accept veterinary medicine returns from clients and pet owners, and have the facilities to dispose of them safely.

You can find your local veterinary surgery on the RCVS website.

Local universities

Engage with the student and staff population at universities. An amnesty campaign links well with wider activities being undertaken at universities for World Antibiotic Awareness Week (WAAW)
If there’s an on-site community pharmacy, or one nearby, get in touch with them ahead of the campaign. Involve them and communicate that they might receive increased returned antibiotics from staff or students
If there are plans to collect antibiotics on campus, risk assessments will need to be completed. Consider the consequences of how the medicines will be stored and transported for safe disposal. Risk assessments should also consider the possibility of controlled drugs and illicit medicines being returned, in addition to antibiotics.

2. Why – engage with your key stakeholders

Consider producing a short briefing guide for staff/volunteers who will be supporting the amnesty to ensure accurate and consistent messaging.

Include why they should get involved, why it is relevant to them and how they can help.

3. What and how – decide your campaign and raise awareness of it

How will the campaign be run? What do the stakeholders need to do? How can you promote the campaign to the public, patients and/or companion animal owners?

Social media

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn are convenient ways of reaching large audiences
Use official social media channels of NHS organisations and other participants to send out the key messages for your campaign. These can be retweeted by individuals as appropriate
Use key hashtags.

Press releases

Consider reaching out to local/national media outlets with a press release
Linking the risk of AMR with the environmental impact of unsafe medicines disposal is a powerful message likely to resonate at the current time
Promote positive messages about the role that healthcare professionals and other stakeholders can play in their local community.
Consider inviting the press to come to a location where the amnesty is being run for a photo opportunity.

Posters in community pharmacies, GP surgeries, dental surgeries, veterinary practices

Download and put up posters in healthcare settings – see the Antibiotic Guardian website and GOV.UK website for antibiotic awareness posters and leaflets
Use TV screens in healthcare settings or veterinary practices.

Online promotion

Create web banners for websites.

Political support

Consider writing to your local MP to highlight your campaign and raise awareness of the threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
You might wish to invite them to participate in the campaign and visit a participating location to meet the healthcare professionals/university students
You can find the name and contact details of your local MP on the UK Parliament website.

Word of mouth

Have conversations with patients and the public, talks in schools, colleges and universities, and awareness stands during WAAW.

4. Record the impact, promote your work and plan for the next campaign

Think about measuring the impact of your campaign – can you gather any data to show it was successful?

Consider asking community pharmacy teams to record the number of packs (full or part-packs) handed in to the pharmacy during the campaign and capture the data using PharmOutcomes
You could collect data on the numbers of patients/public who the pharmacy team spoke to about the amnesty – e.g., use a simple tally sheet in the pharmacy and enter the data onto PharmOutcomes at the end of the campaign.
Social media – likes, retweets, impressions can all be collated and presented in any final evaluation of the success of the amnesty campaign

Once you have gathered evidence about the impact/success or otherwise of the campaign, it’s time to share this with the wider world! Consider sharing your ideas, approach and results as a case study on the RPS website, a poster at a conference, in presentations and anywhere else you can think of. Let others know what worked well and what needs improving so they can build on your work.

For further information, see our antibiotic amnesty page.

We're always fighting antimicrobial resistance – find out more on our campaign page for antimicrobial resistance and stewardship.