In February 2019, NICE and Public Health England issued a consultation on new draft antibiotic prescribing guidance for patients with suspected pneumonia. This is due to come into effect in September 2019.15,16

Among the changes proposed are that antibiotics should be given to people with community or hospital-acquired pneumonia within four hours of establishing a diagnosis. The choice of antibiotics should then be reviewed once results from any microbiological testing are available.15

In addition, this new guidance provides detailed prescribing advice on hospital€‘acquired infections that suggest treatment should be reviewed after five days and the antibiotic stopped if the person is clinically stable. The recommendation regarding CAP will be that “antibiotics should be stopped after five days unless the person is not clinically stable”.