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.

But they can only prescribe one antibiotic and they can’t look at my records. My GP did.GP has told me to go to GP for urine test if the AB he has prescribed doesn’t work over the weekend. He will then find another AB to treat the bug.

Sorry I’m at work Monday and getting to the GP for a test is enough, not trailing back and forth between the pharmacy (which has no privacy)and the GP when the pharmacy decides they can’t treat it.

We’ve had thus for years in Scotland, 3 days antibiotics for UTI. Doesn’t really need a GP appointment. I wouldn’t think you’d get antibiotics for it anyway unless it’s an infection

Not like that round here. Calm, organised. I never wait more than a few minutes.

My pharmacy can only prescribe 1 AB, can’t look at my records or discuss my history. The next pharmacy is mikes away so no thanks.

Which it is as I’ve had it several times and I have waited to see if I can treat it myself.

Surely by now you know which antibiotics work for you and can speak about that to the pharmacist...the pharmacist can call the surgery to confirm. Stop wasting the doctors time.

I've had this problem this morning but in regards to my throat. I've had a "viral illness" repeatedly over the course of 4 weeks. I can't swallow properly. Doctors are refusing to see me as this is now a pharmacy issue. The pharmacist is saying "yes it all looks red and swollen but no white spots so no antibiotics". I've been unable to function properly for almost a month. I can't taste anything. When I've requested a GP appointment, I can't get past a receptionist.
She was nice enough to suggest cough medicine though and strepsils ...

So you’ve had your urine dipped? That’s not what you said in original post. You said it was cycsitis, totally different things so to be fair receptionist is correct if that’s what you told her.

I get that this works for some uncomplicated cases but as someone who suffers from interstitial cystitis and occurring utis the 3 days of ABs that pharmacists prescribe has never been enough to treat my infection, meaning I have to take up two people's time to go to the gp to get more. It's also important to get urine analysed incase anything further is going on/or to detect AB resistance.

No I don’t. They all have long names and there have been several and when it gets this bad I want a doctors advice.

As if a pharmacy is going to pick an AB from an array to hand at the request of a customer!😂😂😂

I went to the pharmacy for the cystitis, worst thing ever. A man was at the checkout and he said very loudly- you have the same thing as the lady over there has, you should have come up earlier. I was crying when I left.

No I haven’t had it dipped. He has given me an AB to get me though the weekend. If it hasn’t eased he’ll test on Monday.

'Stop wasting the Dr's time' . It's their job.

They are GPs. General drs. They aren't busy running around resuscitating folk or performing life saving ops. They are there to dish out meds.

Have you got a Boots nearby?

I got my antibiotic for UTI there AND there was a treatment room

Awful. This is absolute bollocks and we all need to say nope.

I've recently had a water infection. Went to the pharmacy as I thought it was quicker and they ran through a check list of symptoms (though never asked for a sample to test).
Because I mentioned there was blood in my urine, they told me I had to ring my gp or 111.
Rang the gp and the receptionist said samples have to be dropped off and the nurse will check them then call with the results. If needed a dr will prescribe medication but the form did state they don't treat infections unless the patient has had symptoms for over 48 hours.

Op if you can't get seen at your drs then I'd ring 111 where a dr will ring you back and you can discuss the issues you've had with previous infections and antibiotics.

They can look at your records.

As I said, I wasn't suggesting in your specific situation that a pharmacist was fine, although an nurse prescriber/ANP would have done, you didn't need a GP.

The trouble is at the moment probably every time the receptionist suggests the pharmacist or nurse etc someone says no I need to see a GP! So the receptionist could be having to persuade people to see an alternative HCP. But once most people don't argue and if you say oh, actually I need to see a nurse as I need more than 3 days etc it will just work more smoothly. But if you want to be able to see the GP when you really need to people to need to get used to things working a bit differently. I'm a nurse, by the way.

And as I said completely understandable when vulnerable how you responded. Hope you feel well soon.

Sorry, I've read your update now

I suffer from cystitis. For years I've been using Boots when I've needed treatment. You just fill in the form online and pick up your antibiotics a short while later. Costs about £20 but that's preferable for me because I don't have to go to the surgery, or wait for treatment.

I absolutely do not want my local
pharmacy looking at my medical records. I’m local and know all who work in there. I don’t want any pharmacy reading my medical records they’re private.

Would have been happy with a nurse in a room in the GP practice reading my records and prescribing if she could answer my questions and had training to give medical advice from my history.

Wasn’t offered.

And you realise it's not the pharmacist that dips it at the pharmacy either!

Same in England.

The OP wasn't appropriate for that service although a GP not needed either.

First line used to be trimethoprim but a lot of e coli, which is the usual UTI bacteria, became resistant to it so it's nitrofurantoin now.
If this happens a lot to you I would suggest you get some dipsticks off anazon so you can check yourself for nitrites ( given off by e coli infection) and bottles so you can drop a sample off at gps for culture. Also the supplement d mannose can help a lot and even treat UTI in high doses

So re the ''it wasn't 2 mins fir the doc he had to write notes ...''

Does the pharmacist update your medical record?

I am over the age threshold so cannot use the pharmacist service. I have intercystitial cystitis which is far from trivial, I get very painful episodes every couple of weeks. The treatment as recommended by professor Lee malone is long term low dose antibiotics. In general the bugs responsible for cystitis do not show up on an ordinary hospital test. Believe me, this condition has made my life a misery and I too would object being given advice from a receptionist, or even a pharmacist, good through they are.