It shouldn’t be this hard to get antibiotics!

[JemimaTiggywinkles]

I have tonsillitis. I’ve had it before loads of times, so know what it is. I also know that with antibiotics I’ll be better within a couple of days and back in work on Monday. The last time I delayed getting antibiotics (because I couldn’t face a 4hr+ wait standing in the walk-in when sick) I ended up with complications requiring a hospital stay and an operation.

This morning I tried getting an urgent appointment at the GP and they told me to fill in a form, which then said they’ll get back to me by the end of Monday! It did say there was a triage though so I gave it about 4 hours before giving up on getting a quick response from them.

So an hour ago I tried 111 - they said a clinician will call me back but they can’t say when because they’re really busy. Having been through this process before I know I’ll be waiting (probably) a few hours for a call back only to be told that I need to be seen face to face to get a prescription. If I’m lucky I’ll get seen and a prescription at some point tonight via a walk-in centre (which on a Friday night means waiting for hours with drunk people).

I get that I’m not a life and death case. I get that the NHS is underfunded and the staff are overworked. But there really must be a more efficient way of accessing fairly basic medical care.

My last uti - online triage message via website to gp at 4pm; prescription waiting at pharmacy 5 mins later. Picked up and course started at 4:30.

we have fab GPs where I live.

I disagree with the posters who are arguing that it's probably viral. This is really unhelpful for those of us who have suffered with chronic bacterial tonsillitis and know when we need antibiotics. Thankfully I've had mine out now- but on the occasions I took a wait and see approach or was made to do so, I ended up on IV antibiotics every time. It got to the stage where my GP gave them to be on every bout without hesitation.

Antibiotics shouldn't be handed out like sweets, but there are conditions which need them, where a delay can cause significant problems - I've had UTIs which have turned nasty without prompt antibiotics. Over the counter pharmacy provision would be perfect for this.

The thing is in a world without effective antibiotics as a result of poor antibiotic stewardship, almost every episode of sepsis would result in death. Your body will make do without antibiotics (which if you get to the point of having sepsis, it hasn't), or you will die.

So almost every person with an anecdote about having to go into hospital with a severe infection is instead a dead person. Hugely increased postpartum death of mothers and infants. What we now consider to be fairly low risk routine surgeries such as joint replacement becoming a life and death roulette. Bowel problems like appendicitis, diverticulitis, IBD etc becoming much more likely to result in death. Many currently curable cancers becoming completely unsurvivable. Children, older people and those with weaker immune systems (eg diabetics, those reliant on steroids or other drugs to manage auto-immune conditions), dying from what would once might have been serious but very survivable and relatively common infections.

That's the cost of overly liberal use of antibiotics. So there is a very careful balance to be struck for when antibiotics should be used, it's not something the public should be allowed to decide.

(Of course, there are lots of clinical scenarios in which antibiotics are completely appropriate. UTI is an example where there is a decently specific and very rapid test for bacterial infection (urine dip) and where the antibiotics used are often very narrowly targeted (eg trimethoprim, nitrofurantoin are not broad acting but very good at reaching the urine and treating UTI) and need only a brief course. Tonsillitis is a different kettle of fish).

Frankly, it's an area in which HPs themselves badly need to get their act together (in terms of prescribing fewer antibiotics). Obviously it's not only healthcare contributing to this but also antibiotics in our food chain... And it's a global problem. But still, antibiotics on the whole should be harder not easier to obtain.

I have a Cash Plan with Simply Health (not an ad I promise). Lowest level is now £14.30 a month, and I'm not sure if it would help if needing antibiotics, but last month I had what seemed like an idiopathic reaction (to a hamster would you believe), and had a phone appointment later that day - time was decided pretty much by me. Video call was an option, as was uploading photos in advance.

Afterwards, I was sent a link for a prescription that I picked up form my "usual" pharmacy - but could have selected any other I think. Paid £10 for the prescription, that's all.

And of course, there are the other benefits. A couple of years ago I had private consultation (no further treatment), and was able to claim back 75% of the cost through the plan.

You have to have tonsillitis requiring antibiotics ten times in 12 months to qualify. It's ridiculous.

It's hard. I've never had viral tonsillitis in my life, it's always bacterial
Think I've had it maybe 22 times or so? They won't remove them. Immunocompromised so also had around 75 courses of antibiotics in my life and I need them fairly quickly when I get tonsillitis

It’s so awful. It’s like GPs always triage you for the later appointments (4-5 weeks time) hoping you’ll go privately or recover or disappear somehow.
They think that it’s such a joy to pay £10 and then take antibiotics 4 times per day.

I have Diverticulitis. Diagnosis by consultantant/CT scan. After 20 years of pain, unable to work, spending half my life in bed, being told my problem was IBS, stomach migraine, anxiety, all in my head , I finally have a diagnosis.

My consultant said that my treatment plan was to call my GP the moment the pain hit and get antibiotics.

The first time, it worked like a dream. I made the call and antibiotics were prescribed. Within days, I felt better and it was like a miracle. Instead of pain lingering for weeks/months, my pain was gone within days.

After that it all went downhill. GP refuses to give antibiotics unless I make an appointment and go in and see him. But when you are laying on the bathroom floor in pain crying like a baby the last thing you are capable of doing is getting dressed and sitting in a GP's waiting room.

I felt so elated when I found out what was wrong with me but it's all pointless because I can't get the antibiotics. So my life is back to laying in a dark room and waiting for the pain to go away.

I could work, live a normal life. I won't beg my GP, my mum always said no means no so that's it. Such a waste. It makes me so bloody angry.

People do chat a lot of shit about this. 80% of antibiotics produced are used in farming. Human "overuse" of antibiotics is tiny in comparison to this. And the effects could be addressed by drugs companies actually bringing out new streams of antibiotics anyway.

There are problems with antibiotic resistance but they're created by business practices and it's within the gift of commercial actors to solve. Berating people with tonsillitis is not helping one bit.

They do make it so hard.
Filling in an e consultation yet what if what the things are not relevant. Asking for a Chest X Ray. For example.
So stupid having to go in person when a form is the only thing needed.

Pay for a private GP service if you don’t want to wait 🤷‍♀️.

Yeah sounds familiar. Nothing is this inefficient. To me it's deliberate inefficiency, with a view to running down the NHS so much that we don't bother next time and instead go straight to a private GP. Even my own GP said that in a few years' time many services are going to be private.

It’s not paranoia, it called antibiotic resistance and potential subsequent death as a result of the resistance.

But UTIs are almost always bacterial… unlike tonsillitis where the opposite is true. Great that you had a good response but not sure how relevant that is in this scenario

My daughter had tonsillitis 24times before finally getting a tonsillectomy. She had the procedure done on her 4 th Birthday!! She had ABs apart from once …that time she was admitted to hospital with pneumonia 3 days later . I do think that viral is the most common form but it can become bacterial very quickly if the body is not able to fight the infection!

Good God you literally have no idea what you are talking about. Google antibiotic resistance, it's not difficult to educate yourself🙄

Have you heard of antibiotic resistance?

I work in an urgent care centre as an advanced nurse practitioner and have done extra training to be able to prescribe. The number of patients who attend who genuinely want antibiotics for their viral cold symptoms is amazing, over the winter easily 5 a day. The same for all my colleagues in my walk in centre and I'm sure can be multiplied across the whole country.
So no, most people cannot be assumed to know how to use antibiotics safely

A few things - not all GPs take so long. I called the GP, was seen and had my prescription within a few hours with my last bout of tonsillitis. They now have an online form, but it’s just as efficient.

Secondly: antibiotic resistance is a terrifying prospect, awful beyond what most people can imagine. Antibiotics should not be given out like sweeties, absolutely not.

BUT telling people tonsillitis is mostly viral and to ignore it isn’t helpful either. They should be checked by a medical professional if worried. My mother had endocarditis from untreated tonsillitis when she was in her twenties, which damaged her heart for life.

So, when I’d had a very sore throat which didn’t improve at all for a week, no coughing or runny nose, and enlarged tonsils with puss I absolutely did see the GP, and they absolutely did prescribe. It started to get better after just two doses of penicillin, after a week of zero improvement.

Antibiotics generally take 36-48hrs to begin to work. It is likely that your sudden improvement would have happened with or without antibiotics

Don't vote Tory people.

We need a properly funded NHS.

Not all tonsillitis is bacterial, it is often viral at this time of year.

antibiotic resistance is a real problem: many times we’ve been prescribed them and held on to them, hoping the conditions clear up

Antibiotics aren’t indicated for simple bacterial tonsillitis, they Need to be reserved for when they’re really needed. They shouldn’t be given just so you can go back to work a bit earlier. We’re going to end up with no effective antibiotics and the consequences of that are profound. You should of course go get checked out by a medical professional

I'm no Tory voter by any stretch of the imagination, but if you think any of the other shower of shit political parties we have to choose from will make any better job of it you are deluded! I think the NHS is completely buggered and I've worked in it for the last 30 years!!