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.

I went this route four times last year. Pharmacies have a private consulting room.

Exactly.
Also GP was scrolling though to look through my notes, had a quick discussion on the back of it and was clicking as we spoke. I doubt very much he had much to write after and frankly if the NHS can’t give me between 2- 6 minutes on this it’s in even a shitter state than is apparent.

I feel like crap, I’ve tried to treat it myself and have a history or cystitis. I don’t think a 5 min call from my gp is a lot to ask.

Pharmacists need to be able to access your records if you want a service from them i.e if you want any medication. Pharmacists are already able to access and are accessing your records. You know your pharmacist and don't trust them as a health care professional? Why would you go to that pharmacist then?

GPs and nurses also access records at terminals not just in rooms.

And yes your nurse prescriber/ANP at the Surgery he/she would have been trained in prescribing/giving advice and answering questions.

Do you take daily D-mannose? It completely stopped my UTIs and I was having at least one a month.

I always need 5 days of nitro when I have a UTI
The only good thing about being able to go to a pharmacy.. I would get a 3 day course of trimethoprim that would make it just about bareable before I can see the GP!

General practioners are not there to dish out meds!! That's literally the job of a pharmacist!! Of course much simplified!! But not the job of a GP in the slightest! No wonder people can't get GP appointments if people like you demand to see a GP because you need medication being dished out! 🙄

@Thomasina79 my heart goes out to you and all suffers of IC - my dear mum has suffered with this for years and is now at the stage of considering bladder removal . It's sounds so innocuous but is so completely rehabilitating.

@Musica7474 your disdain for pharmacist is really quite sad so I'm out of this thread.

You are 100% nbu op and I'm glad you got an appointment in the end. It's definitely something to raise with your doctor. You may be able to get a note on your file so the receptionist knows to give you an appointment. When you get your prescription you can ask the pharmacist if you can get these particular antibiotics by direct prescription. I suspect they'll only be able to supply the bog standard first line of antibiotics. Also, raise the issue of privacy with the pharmacist and if there isn't any private space push back on the doctor's surgery about recommending this.

I moved to the UK from the Channel Islands a few years ago, and the differences are stark.

Back home, I would call the surgery and request an appointment. I would be offered various appointments so I could pick the one that suited me, apologised to if I couldn't see my GP, and told which other GPs the available appointments were with (there were a couple of doctors I wasn't as keen on). The receptionist didn't ask what was wrong with me/my child.

I don't remember ever being told there wasn't an appointment, even when I called in the afternoon, though there wouldn't be as many choices obviously.

That cost money though, I think it's over £60 now (unless you're on benefits). It cost cuddling your friend as she cried that she needed an appointment to get a prescription for her medication, and didn't have the money for it.

A&E, emergency GP + ambulances back home are a lot easier to access too, because they cost money. A&E even costs more on the weekends. So I have walked into an A&E waiting room with one other person on a Saturday night. But I have also known people who waited until Monday to get hospitalised, and people who have been told off by their GP for not going to A&E for stitches when showing the GP their "not healing quite right" wound.

Pharmacists do not recommend them. As much as we tell people honey and lemon. Lots still think they know best (like you!😄) and wants to buy cough medicines which is why the retail side of a chemist sells them.

Pharmacist is best IMO and much quicker than the doctor. My DD had tonsillitis recently, advised by GP receptionist to try pharmacist. Twenty minutes later left with antibiotics.
There must be somewhere private you can discuss symptoms. I'm also pretty sure they can check what medication you've had before.
As you have a GP appointment maybe ask about the pharmacist while you are there. They'll probably know which ones have a private consultation area and can prescribe antibiotics.

Pharmacists follow a flowchart rather than advise the patient holistically. I have a recurring issue which the doctors, with access to my history, always treat. The pharmacists, and the bloody receptionists, bleat out “computer says no” and ask if I tried paracetamol.

I gave birth with just paracetamol. I have a high pain threshold. If I say the bloody paracetamol isn’t bloody working then I need a human being to listen to me.

So to be clear pharmacists can and do get your detailed records up to scroll through and look at on the phsrmacy counter for all other staff to see when a GP has sent a prescription over to be processed as routine?

I’ve never been told this happens. That is shocking. There are details on there I only want my GP and other medical professionals to see in private locations when necessary.

Yes, definitely raise it if there is no private consultation room. Not seen a pharmacy without one in years. I wonder where all these chaotic, tiny pharmacies are. That sounds sarcastic I actually don't mean it to. In small villages or something?

Pharmacies can now prescribe antibiotics for cystitis and they have consultation rooms so you can discuss in private so yes YABU.

You just need to walk in and ask to speak to pharmacist in private.

Did you actually read the thread?

The last time i had a bladder infection i filled in the Drs 'help!' form online and had a call from a practice nurse an hour later. She arranged a prescription for ABs which i was able to collect from the pharmacy a couple of hours later. She also asked me to drop a urine sample into the surgery for testing and said she'd let me know if i'd need different ABs as a result. All v easy & straightforward.

I developed a humdinger of a kidney infection once from an untreated dose of cystitis - it can be a nasty bugger and women shouldn't be made to feel they've got a liberty asking to speak to a GP or nurse who knows them, their medical history and what works for them.

With regards to a specific antibiotic you can find out yourself on the NHS app which works for you by looking at your medical history.

By pharmacy counter you mean the bit where the assistant is selling items and grabbing people's meds? No, I mean where the pharmacists console is, where the pharmacist accesses records. They have their own login just like your GP. I'm sorry to tell you GPs and nurses do not go into private rooms every time they need to access your records.

Small rural towns definitely can have pharmacies without private rooms.

I read some of it… no need to be so rude but I still think you’re being unreasonable.

So what privacy laws do pharmacies have to abide by?

Is it your records in their entirety they can just scroll though.?

Our pharmacist is hidden in the back and symptoms and questions get shouted through or taken by the women( I all know) serving on the counter often with an eye roll if you ask to speak to the pharmacist. That is not private.

But you know your GP does not go in private to read your records either?

They don’t have a console in our pharmacy and GPs will be bound be privacy considerations I’d trust they keep and working at the practise or somewhere secure as regards data. I hope nurses are only accessing my records on site when I’m there in front of them. Why else would they be dialing into them?