While the premise of your article is correct, I think some of the conclusions you draw are perhaps unhelpful. I believe, in general, doctors take the control of antibiotics, otherwise known as antibiotic stewardship, very seriously. We are aware of the risks and have seen first hand the effects of unnecessary prescriptions.

When you state that patients should question the prescription given to them, this implies that doctors are giving these to patients who do not want them and with little evidence to support their decision. In my experience, the patients who receive unnecessary antibiotics are the patients who expect to leave with some sort of treatment. These are not the group that will question your prescription, the type that would question would not usually be prescribed antibiotics unless they truly needed them.

In the UK, I believe antibiotic stewardship is performed very well, however, this is perhaps helped by the fact we have a public health system. With a private system, as in the US, you make the patient a consumer. If the patient is a consumer, they expect to receive something for their money, health advice or ‘this is likely viral’ often won’t cut it. I believe this is why many countries have a problem with their control of antibiotics.

I don’t believe, unless you are dealing with a particularly negligent doctor, that patients not questioning their doctors has anything to do with it.