Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to research and promote increased water consumption by care home patients to reduce (1) prophylactic antibiotic use, and (2) downstream effects on drug-resistant infections.

NHS England is funding a series of hydration pilots, to test out which hydration related interventions are most likely to increase fluid intake and whether this in turn reduces the risk of developing a urinary tract infection (UTI) in the older adult population living in care homes. These pilots are intended to reduce the incidence of urinary tract and blood stream infections, antibiotic prescribing and use, and antimicrobial resistance.