A 15-minute blood test could slash the number of unnecessary antibiotics given to patients by 80 per cent.
Doctors in England are already trialling the £12 finger-prick test, which tells a GP whether a patient truly needs antibiotics for a chest complaint.
The test, called FebriDx, changed a GP’s decision in 48 per cent of cases, a pilot study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases & Preventive Medicine found.