A range of AAs covering different classes were quantifiable in hospital effluent (table ). Regarding ARGs, all seven targets were quantifiable in all samples (S11 and S12). The most prevalent ARG in hospital effluent was ermB, at 5.04E+09 ± 2.11E+09 copies/L; with qnrS having the lowest prevalence 2.96E+06 ± 2.92E+06 copies/L (figure ). The two additional genes investigated in hospital effluent, TetM and bla-TEM, had similar abundances in general, at 8.71E+06 ± 5.05E+06 and 6.38E+06 ± 5.00E+06 copies/L respectively. Finally, the ARGs, qnrS and tetM both had low prevalence when compared to other studied genes and observed similar concentrations to each other in hospital effluent. The overall abundances of AAs linked to the ARGs studied in hospital effluent vs community wastewater were also considered (figure ). Concentrations of total AAs classes in hospital effluent were generally higher than community wastewater. Focusing on hospital effluent, the macrolides and lincosamides were measured at the highest abundance, with five-day averages at 50 ± 43 μg/L and 30 ± 24 μg/L, with and without metabolites respectively. Excluding metabolites, AAs from the beta-lactam class reported the next highest loads with five-day averages at 9 ± 8 μg/L, followed by those in the sulphonamide class at 3 ± 2 μg/L. When including metabolites, due to elevated levels of aSMX on the 06/08/2019 (147 ± 14 μg/L), sulphonamides observed the highest average after macrolides at 40 ± 67 μg/L with beta-lactams at 11 ± 7 μg/L. Quinolone and tetracycline AA were in the lowest abundance in hospital effluent giving five-day averages at 1.0 ± 1.6 μg/L and 0.02 ± 0.03 μg/L. These values did not change with the inclusion of metabolites, as quinolone metabolites detected were below the limits of quantification and tetracycline metabolites were not included in this method.