No smell and my GP - AIBU?

You have my sympathy-viral infections can take a while to clear, but taking antibiotics will have no effect, apart from contributing to the growing problem of antibiotic resistance.

I had no sense of smell from over 6 months, it’s a nightmare, you don’t know if food is safe to eat, you just question everything.
And food and drink is miserable, you can’t taste anything.

Then I had a sinus infection for a year !! Multiple antibiotics, which never eradicated it, until a pompous female doctor refused to help, and “ explained to me” how antibiotic resistance might occur.

Eventually got my specialist appointment who prescribed 6 weeks of antibiotics.

Keep going back to the doctors, ask for a second opinion, ask for a referral to hospital ( expect a long wait)

I think now, I would have sought an online private prescription, or tried to.

Good luck

You don’t need antibiotics if you’re improving, it’s highly likely viral, possible covid.
DH didn’t fully get his sense of taste back for almost a year after having covid.
Keep up your fluids, get plenty of rest and take some multivitamins and you’ll be better soon

When my son had this for a couple of months after COVID we saw the prescribing nurse who prescribed in with a new powdered preventer/reliever inhaler which worked really well - he still uses the inhaler for his asthma.

Edited to add she was treating the cough, the inhaler helped manage the cough.

Loss of smell / taste can be very distressing.

Unfortunately, there is no easy cure. Antibiotics won't fix it.

Look up the charity SmellTaste for support with this condition. There are things you can do to retrain your brain and improve your sense of smell.
www.smelltaste.org.uk/

Did the last 5 years pass you by? This is completely normal for COVID, for which antibiotics don't do anything. All you've done is waste the GPs time, go to bed with a lemsip and wait it out.

We live in a system which is at best broken, and people need to step up a gear for their own survival get a grip, learn the difference between a common self-limiting after effect of a cold and a genuine medical need to see a doctor, and not expect to be handed antibiotics for no reason at all. There, fixed it for you.

PS "the best care" doesn't equal "antibiotics on demand" and even non tax payers deserve to see a doctor when they need to

We live in a system which is at best broken, and people need to step up a gear for their own survival. The OP is demanding Antibiotics because they are not a Doctor and it is their only understanding.

I am sure OP pays tax and hence deserves the best care.

This is getting madder and madder 😆

The OP had a bad cold, or covid. It takes weeks to recover from that. Antibiotics do not treat viruses.

But sure, get the government involved 🤔

Do any posters here know how Liability insurance works with Surgeries? Is the Surgery responsible for its own insurance or the Trust, or eventually the Government takes on a case should it go that far?

I do not mention the need for antibiotics. My stance is towards "You, Surgery, has a duty of care towards me, the patient. Across a period of X I have tried to contact you to resolve my issue, you have provided no clear solution neither specified that a clear solution cannot be found. Take this letter on the record that should anything happen, I will hold you responsible."

If you have reasonable request and are being neglected .. then yes.

Threatening letters when a GP quite rightly didn't prescribe antibiotics for a viral infection... not so much.🙄

No you will not be asked to register elsewhere, that would be retaliation. The Surgery were on the straight and narrow once we wrote.

What do you want antibiotics for?

You had COVID, not an "awful cold."

Antibiotics treat bacterial infections not viral ones. Some things you just need to ride out.

Why would you want antibiotics? You don't have an infection, you have a cold. Antibiotics don't work for viral illnesses like colds and covid.

Although it's more likely to have been covid as others have suggested, it might be worth asking your GP to check for nasal polyps and - if appropriate - make a referral to ENT.

Nasal polyps cause loss of smell and taste and often come with a side order of asthma - for me that's just a persistent cough, nothing to worry about - and intolerance to NSAIDs (ibuprofen etc). They can be surgically removed and there are treatments that can help prevent recurrence.

They stopped giving antibiotics for no reason years ago.

I'm sorry for your loss but writing such a letter to a GP who has nothing to prescribe for extremely common post-viral symptoms is crazy.

My smell was gone for ages after covid, one of my colleagues suggested some sort of smell therapy that he had tried - alternating a bunch of really strong scents. It did work, although at first I dropped one in the kitchen and everyone else tells me it was pungent - stuff like citrus, cloves and eucalyptus.

Steam in the morning and at night with a little boiled water and olba oil. You will start to notice your sense of smell coming back,

lots of fresh air and healthy food to recover. Zinc tablets can help

She's got cold.
Send a threatening letter for that and you'll end up being asked to register elsewhere....

Sorry for your loss, but the OP has very common post-viral symptoms and is demanding totally ineffective antibiotics. Such a letter would be pointless and time-consuming for the GP.

But the OP doesn't have recurring cancer. S/he has a very common after effect of a virus and doesn't need treatment, much less antibiotics