This article reports on the proceedings of a meeting held in London in July 2005 organized by the Specialist Advisory Committee on Antimicrobial Resistance in conjunction with the UK National Prescribing Centre and UK Department of Health. The focus of the meeting was the developing role of the antibiotic pharmacist. The main presentations tackled four aspects of hospital antimicrobial prescribing: the development, maintenance and presentation of guidelines; the role of prescriber education; the importance of team working in multidisciplinary prescribing networks; and preliminary findings on hospital antibiotic consumption in England. The speakers highlighted the progress that has been made and gave examples of good practice, in addition they drew attention to deficiencies and hence the challenges that lie ahead. These include the need for accurate hospital antibiotic usage data in the UK and more integration of clinical outcome data in studies on the control of antimicrobial consumption through the implementation of prescribing guidelines.