HEALTH bosses have been forced to defend a scheme to reward GPs for reducing their use of antibiotics.

Under the scheme introduced by North East Essex Primary Care Trust (PCT), the GPs will receive £1 for every patient on their practice list, if they reduce their use of antibiotics by 20 per cent by the end of the financial year.

It is a bid by the PCT to tackle rates of infections such as clostridium difficile and MRSA, which are caused by the overuse of antibiotics.

But at a board meeting patients questioned the decision to increase the incentive scheme.

John Grice, a member of the Colchester League of Hospital and Community Friends, said antibiotics had been known to increase the risk of some infections for years.

He said: "I have been personally aware of this for about 30 years, and it seems disgraceful we still have this growing problem.

"Professional bodies have known antibiotics were dangerous so why hasn't something been done before?"