TY - JOUR T1 - Response from NICE JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 606 LP - 607 DO - 10.3399/bjgp11X601262 VL - 61 IS - 591 AU - Andrew J Pollard AU - Matthew Thompson AU - Tim Stokes Y1 - 2011/10/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/61/591/606.2.abstract N2 - We are grateful for the opportunity to provide some comment following the letter by Saeed et al1 that points out an apparent discrepancy between NICE recommendations2 for primary care antibiotic therapy (penicillin) and secondary care management (ceftriaxone) and makes a case for availability of a third generation cephalosporin in the GPs ‘black bag’.Unfortunately, the authors' arguments are based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the guidance as the population they discuss should not have been given antibiotic therapy in the first place. The only population for whom there is a recommendation for universal pre-hospital antibiotic therapy in this setting are those with suspected meningococcal disease (both meningococcal meningitis and septicaemia), that means patients who are ill … ER -