to be pissed of with the NHS today?

[thestateofit]

I am prepared to be flamed here but I am slightly stressed at the moment so please be kind! I found out I was cheated on by a (now ex!) partner and took a sti test through the post which came back as testing positive for chlamydia yesterday, I was understandably upset but was just eager to get treatment and get it gone. I called the local sexual health clinic when they opened at 8:30 this morning to try and get an appointment and was told that I had to wait for a triage nurse to call me back so I called my GP in the meantime to try and get an appointment, no appointments for today, please come and queue at 8am in the morning when you may or may not get an appointment. Triage nurse called back at 11:30 and said that the earliest appointment is Thursday afternoon in the clinic all the way across town. I explained that I work 12 hour shifts and it would be difficult for me to attend an appointment there at that time as I work in healthcare and I can't just leave due to safety of staffing levels as I'm sure she understands, is there any way I can be prescribed the antibiotics over the phone or get an appointment sooner? No, the only way to get them is to attend this clinic on Thursday, nothing can be done sooner. I was told that I didn't even know I had the infection until yesterday so a few more days ago won't hurt and everybody has work commitments and work commitments are not her problem and she has a long list of other patients to call so please can I decide if I want the appointment or not as there is nothing else she can do. I phoned the GP back to see if they could prescribe the antibiotics over the phone, I was told no I have to attend this clinic this is the only way to get treatment. I have spent half the day on the phone and I have now found that I can buy the prescription online from Boots for £20 and the prescription will be available to collect within 2 hours. If Boots can prescribe over the internet why can't the GP prescribe them over the phone?I honestly don't think my mental health could have coped having to wait until Thursday for any treatment knowing I had chlamydia. The NHS system is so bureaucratic and frustrating for something as simple as an antibiotic prescription. I was lucky I could pay the £20 and get it over with but what about someone who can't?

Gretavanfleet I would hardly call it in my day, this was less than 10 years ago. I am mid twenties.

My toddler was prescribed over the phone a few weeks ago.

YANBU, they should just prescribe you the antibiotics - it’s a definitive diagnosis with a definitive treatment, an appointment would be wasting their time as well as yours.

YANBU OP! Such an inefficient system. They could have prescribed over the phone, not wasted everyone’s time and then given the appointment you didn’t need to someone else. Absolutely ridiculous. I think you should change surgeries and make sure the practice manager knows why.

To all those defending a lengthy wait - set your bar higher! It’s entirely possible to have medicine you need the same day you need it. Not an odd thing to either want or expect at all. In fact, in some countries it is absolutely the norm. But no, we can’t criticize the sacred NHS, can we? The OP had results from a reputable company and needed someone to prescribe basic antibiotics. She wasn’t asking for meth! To make it so incredibly hard is just bad practice and not what the NHS is supposedly there for.

Because for a sexual disease, most NHS GPs now refer to the sexual health clinic. You’ve bypassed that by paying to go privately.

YABU

I've been prescribed antibiotics and pain relief over the phone before? It's not a new thing. They can do It.

Prescribing o er the phone isn’t the issue. Of course people are issued prescriptions over the phone. Was come prior to the prescription though is a consultation with the prescriber.

There aren’t any consultation appointments available with the GP and the next available consultation at the STI clinic isn’t until Thursday.

A positive result doesn’t just automatically result in a prescription being issued. There’s the clinical decision making bit in the middle which any prescriber worth their salt will do. I’m a non medical prescriber and no fucking way I’d be writing a prescription without talking to a patient to get some history first, and checking their current meds for interactions and allergies. There the whole clinical exam bit too but hey, let’s not worry about that. It’s only our professional registrations on the line and all…

Superdrug website showing clearly here there the prescription cost and the telephone consultation cost.

@thestateofit I think the issue here is you wanted a same day appointment, as you say it would have been too stressful for your MH for you to wait until Thursday. Antibiotics can be given over the phone, but this needs an appointment to discuss with a clinician (Dr or prescribing nurse). It’s not great care for a prescriber to issue them without talking to you. Most of the examples PP are giving here for over the phone prescribing would have involved a telephone appointment.

im a GP and although we usually refer most sexual health stuff to the GUM clinics, I would want to talk to you about screening for other STIs, contraception etc and make sure there is no risk of pregnancy. This takes time and requires an appointment. If this wasn’t done and god forbid you actually also had HIV and no one had checked you’d probably be the first to complain.

Doctors can prescribe based in a telephone consultation - but that's still a doctors appointment. If they don't have an appointment on the day you still have to wait to book one.

@byejacques I work for the NHS. We are at a point where the squeaky wheel gets the oil. As has been the case for many many years now.

@LargeBadSwanCollider beat me to it, exactly.

They did for my son.

No offence intended, just seemed quite apt with the other thread that was going

And this is why people can’t get appointments, because they are wasting them on unnecessary ones. The OP had a diagnosis already and just needed the antibiotics prescribed.

Unfortunately the issue here is that you wanted a same day resolution instead of waiting for your result to be triaged; you also were offered an appt within a clinically appropriate timeframe which you declined. Your work commitments are not the nurses issue regardless of where you work.

It would be clinically inappropriate for medication to be issued without a consultation. Also in this situation you would be offered sexual health advice.

I agree that your anger would be better directed to the person who actually have you chlamydia, rather than at the entire NHS because you couldn’t get same day resolution of a non-emergent issue.

The NHS system is so bureaucratic and frustrating

Absolutely. I get a few medications on prescription every two months. Now I have been told one of them can only be prescribed one month at a time. Why? It just means I have to go to the pharmacy twice as often.

I agree OP

What additional information can they get from seeing you, that they can't get from over the phone? They already know what it is, and there is a standard/ routine treatment. Having to attend in person seems like a waste of their resources as well as your time

Exactly this. I’m a prescriber. I wouldn’t just generate a prescription (especially for antibiotics) without a clinical consultation. Of course this can be done over the phone but not necessarily the same day - our protocol is that with no symptoms and not pregnant it isn’t urgent. We are overwhelmed with work and this would be allocated a phone call within 72 hours.

Oh and the other thing to bear in mind is that in my area we (GP surgeries) are not commissioned to provide sexual health services. The prescribing responsibility actually lies elsewhere - but we often do prescribe as we appreciate how difficult it can be to get to regional/satellite CASH services.

Hope you feel better soon OP.

If you have an adverse reaction, will you hold boots responsible? And what will they do? Damn all, is what. You are waiting for professional expertise and accountability.

Also, their staff, fast response times and bricks and motor costs are bourne by sandwiches and anti-aging gloop. The NHS has no income stream.

it’s deeply unfair to compare them.

I know pharmacists can treat you and give advice. I didn't realise they could write you prescriptions.

@thestateofit I remember when I was a teenager that there used to be walk in clinics where you could just sit and wait and be guaranteed an appointment, they always used to be busy and well used it's sad that things like that are a thing of the past. you should have waited and attended the clinic. You need sexual health advice rather than just antibiotics if you have been contracting STI's since your teens.

The sexual health services in Cornwall prescribe over the phone following a positive postal test. Done it loads with young people.

Lilacpoppy, excuse me? This is the first sti I have ever had. The clinic used to be for contraception and routine testing, did you mean to be so rude?

I've twice been prescribed antibiotics over the phone, and my 1yo some steroid medication over the phone.

To encourage you to buy it and not use the NHS.