Cornwall pharmacist awarded funding to investigate false penicillin allergies

Neil Powell received funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research

A clinical pharmacist from Cornwall has been awarded funding to investigate the best way to treat patients incorrectly labelled as allergic to penicillin.

Neil Powell received funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research for the study.

One in 10 people have a penicillin allergy in their medical notes, but studies suggest 90% could safely take the drug, the NHS said.

Mr Powell said the study's main aim was to "optimise the use of penicillin".

"Penicillin is generally well-tolerated, it's effective, safe, and therefore we want to be using it," he said.

"In this study we are looking to identify the people who aren't likely to have an allergic reaction and can be safely delabelled.

"There are lots of other reasons for conducting this study, for example if you've got someone with a resistant bug and a penicillin allergy, their antibiotic options are limited."

'Grown out of allergy'

The NHS said research showed patients with a penicillin allergy record had poorer health outcomes than those who did not.

It said possible reasons for being mislabelled as allergic to penicillin included experiencing an intolerance and not a true allergy, having grown out of an allergy or attributing a reaction to penicillin when it was not the cause.

The study, called Removing Erroneous Penicillin Allergy Labels (REPeAL), aims to provide structured questions to help clinicians decide whether or not to offer penicillin to those with a recorded allergy.

Mr Powell said higher risk patients with a history of anaphylaxis were not currently included in the study but could be in the future.