To think a GP doesn't understand antibiotics

[FakePlanet]

I mean of course she would right?

Two days ago woke up and had such pain in back of my throat. My baby has had a bad cold recently. But my throat was swollen and eating and drinking hard

Went to GP. Confirmed tonsillitis and lots of inflammation

She then went onto a website and put in my symptoms and prescribed 10 days of antibiotics

I said but I thought most tonsillitis was caused by virus so antibiotics wouldn't work. she said she'd looked online and antibiotics were right way to go.

I have started taking them but the more I read online the more it's clear that antibiotics really aren't effective for majority of tonsillitis

Am I being an Internet idiot? Surely GP is right? But I'm sure I've just caught a cold virus off the baby and it's developed into tonsillitis but GP didn't listen and just kept saying the website said antibiotics

Bacterial tonsillitis will give you white spots on your tonsils, for this you will need antibiotics. The doctor will most likely be looking at which antibiotics to give you on her PC rather than googling "What illness causes large white spots on tonsils?."

I had mine out at 30 and 2 DSs at young age, I feel like half our lives were affected by tonsillitis. Just take antibiotics now, it will very probably get worse until you are unable to swallow your own saliva, have a raging temperature and your ears hurt too.

Or gargle with hydrogen peroxide solution (cheap from chemist, dilute as instructed) and it'll roughly do the same job, just a more topical way of dealing with the problem.

It must be a cheaper option than doing bloods or swabbing. What else are they meant to do if someone has a severe sore throat?

GP was following guidelines:

https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/sore-throat-acute/diagnosis/diagnosing-the-cause/

There's no way of knowing whether it's bacterial or viral without taking swabs for microbiology. But by the time you get the results back the infection will be well on the way to resolving itself anyway. All they will tell you is whether you could have avoided some of the patient's pain and malaise if you'd prescribed penicillin 3 or 4 days ago. You have to make a clinical judgement on whether it's more likely to be bacterial or viral. That is a doctor's job.

@Madamecastafiore yeah that's what I had...ear ache, very hot at night, and swallowing v painful. That's what I booked GP. Then read online most tonsillitis caused by virus and antibiotics ineffective.

But obviously the GP thought good chance it is bacterial because of those symptoms that I described

I'm being a dick. Being grumpy and hastily wrote a silly post on MN. I'm taking the course of AB.

Without a swab it’s impossible to tell.

I once used to get tonsillitis quite badly about once a year. On the last occasion (over 20 years ago now) it was the worst ever, I was really ill, and the ABs the GP gave me didn’t work. I went back, and thank goodness he prescribed different ones, to be taken for at least 10 days.

I have never once had it since. You can carry that bug in your throat - as I evidently did - and have it flare up now and then - not to mention passing it on to dcs or anyone else. So that 2nd lot of ABs evidently killed it off once and for all.

If I were you, OP, I’d just be grateful - take them, and be sure to finish the course.

I remember reading in Victorian novels about people dying of a ‘putrid sore throat’!

I expect the GP will have used either FEVERPain or Centor score which is a grading tool for tonsillitis to aid prescribing decisions

You don't seem to agree with the GP on anything. Clearly, Dr Google is your go-to health care professional.
Suggest you leave your current practice and use Tom, Dick and Harry's until you find a doctor who tell you what you think you already know

Definitely not in the US. Americans mostly get sore throats. Sometimes they get strep throat, and that's when doctors might prescribe antibiotics.

Tonsillitis just means inflammation of the tonsils, so if they were inflamed its tonsillitis, you dont need a GP for that

Either take the medication or dont, you dont have to take everything you're given by a GP or agree with taking the prescription from them, Ive refused medication before

Although it does annoy me that GPs dont routinely test for whether things are bacterial or viral.

Clearly you're not a doctor

My DH had antibiotics for tonsillitis. It definitely cleared it up but took about 3 days to work. She must have thought it was bacterial if she prescribed them. Doctors don't always give detailed reasoning but that was her opinion.

Read up on antibiotic resistance. Giving everyone antibiotics if they have symptoms that could be viral or bacterial is terrible and will lead to much bigger problems in the not so distant future.

And the idea that doctors are infallible and their decisions should never be questioned has led to a lot of deaths. Medical errors are not rare. Doctors are human and if you have ever worked in the health care world or in quality assurance in health care - you will quickly lose the rose coloured classes that doctors can't or don't make mistakes because they have years of training.

Or it might have cleared up on its own in 3 days. That is partly why so many people want antibiotics. Viral infections clear up too but if you took anticbiotics for a viral infection, you will associate that clearing up with the antibiotic. It is the old correlation doesn't equal causation.

And people want them / doctors prescribe them because then it feels like you are doing something and taking action to manage the symptoms. Feels much better than leaving an appointment empty handed.

Unbelievable...

So you decided to come on MN slander your GP ... who was in fact correct with her diagnosis.

Maybe in future you should listen to your doctor or don't bother going and wasting what little time they have

Noone in UK gets tested for type of tonsillitis
You are lucky she didn't tell you to come back in a week if it doesn't improve. Or prescribe the wrong type of antibiotics.

YABU sorry!

If there’s white slough on your tonsils, it’s likely bacterial.

I had constant tonsillitis before I got them taken out, the only relief I had was when on antibiotics

Are you 100% sure it's 5 times a day on an empty stomach?

They do make mistakes on the label sometimes. I once got HRT patches with a label that said "apply two patches once a day".

It was supposed to say "apply one patch twice a week!"

Fortunately I already knew the dose as had had them before, and the leaflet inside the box also said twice a week.

When I got my repeat the pharmacist saw what was on the system and was horrified and very relieved when I said I'd ignored the instructions.

GPs don't usually give patients medication so the patient thinks the GP has done something worthwhile. It's more than likely the patient demands something because they believe they need it.

Some pharmacies in my area swab and provide antibiotics and advice under the Local Health Board Sore Throat Scheme. It's trying to get people to use it and not contact the GP is the battle.

Op had said she's being a dick, fair enough eh?
Op which antibiotics were u given?

I dont really understand why people are turning up to the GP if they know what they've got and dont think they require ABs anyway?

The poster who knew their sore throat was covid, why go to the GP, what did they think the GP was going to give them apart from painkillers?

I'm abroad and often suffer from tonsillitis - we have. too names for it here

Angine rouge ( red tonsillitis - viral)
Angine blanche (white tonsillitis- bacterial)

The doctor can either prescribe antibiotics or not - but they add a swap test to the prescription most of the time you then go to the pharmacy where you do the swab test ( that has the lovely name of TROD angine). The results take around 5 minutes. If the swab is positive you get the antibios and if it's negative you get sympathy and advice to deal with the virus.

I get tonsillitis 3/4 times a year unfortunately - I've now started going to the pharmacy first, the swab test can be done without a prescription - only if it is positive do I go and get a script for antibiotics.

Show me one then? I am a pharmacist.

Hope you and baby are both feeling better soon OP