In the present economic climate, it is increasingly necessary to ensure the cost-effectiveness of all aspects of healthcare. The expenditure on medications in a hospital is largely determined by the workload and throughput, but efforts to rationalise the use of medications will result in benefits both in patient care and overall costs. The purpose of this report is to discuss the advantages of switching from parenteral to oral cephalosporin therapy after the initial stage of infection treatment, the potential of presently available oral cephalosporins for use in a parenteral-to-oral switch regimen, and the outcome of a parenteral-to-oral switch programme, which used parenteral cefotaxime and oral cefixime, implemented at Hillingdon Hospital.