Being told to go the pharmacy for cystitis by doctor receptionist

[Musica7474]

I have cystitis. I’ve had it before and had different anti biotic for it- sometimes 2 as it has been resistant to treat.

Ive left it to try and sort it self out for a few days by doing all the right things. It hasn’t.

Receptionist told me pharmacies now deal with cystitis and will advise me. I don’t need advice and I don’t want to be talking about my wee and symptoms in a packed pharmacy.

The receptionist made me feel awful for not wanting to go to the pharmacy and insisting on a doctor’s call( I’d have been happy with a prescription being left at the desk and no call just a gp looking at my records to check which anti biotic is best for me). She said I could have a call this time.🤔

Cystis can be really unpleasant and not great if not treated . Anti biotic are expensive and it’s not great to take several, I don’t think women should be made to feel like shit for wanting treatment for it and a gp to look at her records.

They look at your records, I told them the normally first choice anti-b didn't work last time, they checked the records and have me the one one that worked last time. It was very efficient.
Of your local pharmacist doesn't have a consulting room, maybe try another one.

I didn't say your receptionist had been spoken to like shit. I said a receptionist somewhere will have been. @Janiie this is for you too.

As I said, the GP is excellent because he indulged you. The receptionist will have, most likely, spoken to the Practice Manager about your telephone call, and the Practice Manager, most likely, will have asked the GP to take the pressure off his/her staff by indulging you.

Mission Accomplished. No doubt, it's a case of rinse and repeat for you.

As others have said, preciousness (like yours) is costing people with real issues - breast lumps, prostate problems, unexpected weight loss, children with fever etc. - harm because GPs indulge entitled patients who abuse their reception staff.

PS Colour me surprised that you have had a PALS complaint. 🙄

Uttter bullshit. My phone call was 10 minutes later.Although I rarely go to the GP I had 2 recent potentially serious issues and was seen the same day being told to come down immediately for one of them. Out of the list of 7 on the government website I would use the pharmacy for 5 potentially 6. I won’t be using it for cystitis and potentially not ear ache as I’m under ENT.

The PALS complaint was about my child and upheld. I was advised to do it by several professionals within the NHS equally frustrated and appalled. Are we not supposed to use PALs or is that another made up rule?

This was my experience too, prior to being on medication that means Pharmacists cannot prescribe to me directly i.e. it has to be via the GP.

My GP and I have worked round it with me now having a supply on hand of the antibiotic I need. It means I can request a further prescription if needed at my regular (unfortunately necessary) monitoring consultations for my other condition. This allows the GP to keep an eye on how many UTIs I'm experiencing and frees up her time to spend with people who have serious needs.

Hopefully, I'll be off the other medication soon and can access the Pharmacy service again in future should I need to do so. 😊

I like my local chemist but whenever I pop in it's very busy just with people picking up prescriptions and waiting to see the pharmacist.

So you get your regular appointment a with your gp and have a system set up to get the medication you need and get to speak to your gp regularly about your cystitis on top but apparently others can’t request to speak to their GP once ( which they are allowed to do going by the government site).And I’m the one being indulged!!!!

Quite normal.

How else do you think we get waiting lists brought down.

Ditto. You know nothing about my medical history or our PALS complaint so off you trot.

'As others have said, preciousness (like yours) is costing people with real issues - breast lumps, prostate problems, unexpected weight loss, children with fever etc. - harm because GPs indulge entitled patients who abuse their reception staff.'

No-one has been 'abused' stop being so dramatic. I think desk staff can still manage to book in serious problems as well as less serious plus there's the nurse practitioners and practice nurses who surely can process samples and prescribe antibiotics or are they too busy looking after critically ill people too??

Pharmacies are not the place for urine samples thankyou very much.

I'm not interested in your PALS complaint. I only expressed a lack of surprise you'd raised one.

Indulged? OP very likely doesn't meet criteria for the pharmacy service designed for simple, common ailments. The GP is shepherding scarce resources by seeing her directly, without demanding she first seek out a probably pointless extra consultation with another busy professional.

If seeing a primary care doctor for treatment of recurring treatment-resistant bacterial urinary tract infections when no adequate treatment is obtainable elsewhere qualifies as an indulgence to you, I… well, I don't know what to say to that. This is what GPs are for, among other things. Untreated or undertreated UTIs can be dangerous.

Cystitis is not taken seriously by many medical people. I've suffered with it my entire life (my Mum says I even had it as a baby), and have many ways of managing it as best I can at home before having to resort to antibiotics but sometimes I still need to.

My worst experience was a couple of years ago in the middle of the night when I was suddenly struck by it, and while on the toilet, weeing bright blood, I rang 101 to get an appointment at the out of hours. The triage person tried to persuade me to do the 'cope at home for 3 days before going to a doctor' line I've heard a million times before, which I refused due to how bad it was and reluctantly gave me an appointment. When I got to out of hours and saw a doctor, he then told me off for coming in, until he did the culture test and saw how bad it was. I then got my antibiotics but they were so dismissive of my symptoms and made it difficult to get the medical care I knew I needed, I havnt forgotten it.

We should not have to fight for adequate medical care.

Inferring that it was undeserved, it wasn’t. An attitude like that, mocking and sneering at people whose dc has experienced utter shite within the NHS is what puts people off fighting for better treatment. PALS is there for a reason and meant to be used.Shock horror I know many professionals working in the NHS who have used it. 😱

Tell your friend that about nurse practitioners/practice nurses. I have no confusion on that issue.

Nurses, though, even practitioners don't have the same gravitas in some people's minds.

I have learnt something here, myself and daughter went the online pharmacy route before for cystitis and got antibiotics after a week of sachets not working. Private prescriptions

So you can get it from the nhs via the pharmacy, at nhs prices - great.

Thing is when you have bad cystitis you are a bit desperate and will do the quickest way. The online pharmacies can express deliver

'So you get your regular appointment a with your gp and have a system set up to get the medication you need and get to speak to your gp regularly about your cystitis on top but apparently others can’t request to speak to their GP once ( which they are allowed to do going by the government site).And I’m the one being indulged!!!!'

Exactiy! Not you though op, you get queueing at the pharmacy and discuss your private medical info infront of a waiting room full of people.

One rule for @Trez1510 it seems..

Oh do give over. 🙄

It's been explained, multiple times, on this thread. Visit Pharmacy, go to consultation room, explain resistance to first-line antibiotic, Pharmacist checks previous medications, Pharmacist prescribes suitable antibiotic to meet needs.

So, yes, by refusing to follow this option/demanding GP consultation is indulgent imo.

Reasons for refusing to follow this option:

a) No consultation room (not verified by OP, simply an assumption)
b) Pearl-clutching horror that a medical professional (lesser than a GP!!) would access her medical history. Not only that, they would do so in full view of shop full of others (not even remotely likely based on the knowledge of those who work within the system - or me who has previously been through the system).

So, yes, indulged.

Pharmacies prescribing is part of the new system set up by the government. If you don't like it, vote them out when you get the chance. It's no use blaming the NHS-they don't make these rules, they are subject to them.

You can still opt to see your GP, the receptionist forgot to mention that.

I don't care what you see your gp for my point is you have your own little bespoke system in place yet expect everyone else to get the back of the 3 mile queue at the pharmacy! Nope.

My comprehension skills are fine thanks. No need to be rude.

But you are still able to have discussions about your recurrent cystitis and not only that you’re regularly piggy backing appointments for something else which you’re not supposed to do. And then lecturing about using the pharmacy service for it which you don’t even use yourself.

I think I am best placed to decide what I need. As I said out of the 7 conditions on the site I will use the pharmacy for 5 maybe 6. I won’t however be using them for my cystitis and potentially ear ache.

Where I live we don’t have this scheme. We do have a different kind of practitioner at the pharmacy though. But I have to see them, go though a full history and exam. Then they have me pee in a cup and do a test. The test is always invalid because there is always blood in my urine. So then they finally start to write me the first prescription for antibiotics, allergic, then the second, allergic, and finally the third. Then I take the prescription over to the pharmacist. It is ridiculous because it is always the same.

I would be thrilled to just walk up to the pharmacist, report I have these symptoms, I’ve done the home remedy thing, and I need a particular antibiotic because of my medical history. The whole thing would take 2 minutes.

and I’m prone to infections everywhere because I have so many allergies. My tissue gets irritated, cracks, and then gets infected. Hence why this has played out so many times in my life.