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.

My Mum was a dispenser in a pharmacists for many years, and that sounds like the last one she worked in, in a large village. Bit of a 'we're all friends here' feel about it, which isn't always great if you've a sensitive/personal problem.

If it's just an antibiotic you need for a bout of cystitis (and not a constant stream of it for a very long period) and not requiring major treatment including surgery (which is painful and very unpleasant) then it is minor. JFC I can see why GP surgeries are overwhelmed if people like you are crying this is something major and must be GP treated! I agree with the get a grip people.

Or if you want to keep your medical records private which last I heard is a right. Or has that been ditched now along with everything else?

Exactly antibiotics if needed you say what you've done already and history the pharmacist looks up your records to see what antibiotics you were last given. The same access as GP and hospitals. If they can't help they will tell you.

It's probably best to leave this here and perhaps as you are unwell this is clearly worrying you. Of course as nurses we need to access our patients records other than when they are sitting in front of us. How on earth do you think we do our jobs? I mean us nurses are amazing but not so amazing we can remember everything about our hundreds of patients full medical records! But yet these wonderful GPs it's fine by you if they can look at their patients records! Should they not remember it all too?? 😂

Not what my GP told me. He said the pharmacist could only give me one. And I don’t want our local pharmacist looking up my private medical records in our busy local pharmacy anyway. I also don’t want to discuss my cystitis history in a busy pharmacy.

Anyway, hope you feel better soon, OP. I'm out 😊

YANBU. Pharmacists can only prescribe a 3 day course if AB’s (usually trimethoprim or nitrofurantoin) and that’s not always enough, particularly if you suffer recurrent UTIs that are resistant to some ABs. A short course can actually sometimes make the infection harder to tackle.
Uromune is a vaccine for UTIs, very new but promising. Maybe ask GP how to access it.

Please don’t patronise me. It’s a justified question. If you are looking at my records at the GP practise or hospital prior to an appointment in a data secure place then fine but if that isn’t the case- why?

And I don’t want our local pharmacist looking up my private medical records in our busy local pharmacy anyway. I also don’t want to discuss my cystitis history in a busy pharmacy
Then just tell them that and ask them for privacy! It's not difficult!

In front of my local community and staff I know no thanks. There are also assumptions with cystitis I don’t wish the entire queue to be pondering on and actually I may wish to discuss intimate details or is that not allowed now when we get prescriptions?

No thanks I’ll request a GP appointment when I feel it’s necessary which it clearly was and was possible. I rarely go to the gp, know my history and had self treated.

Pharmacists can prescribe now, ask to see the pharmacist and they should discuss your symptoms in a side room.

No, we don't need to follow anything. We can drop samples off at the Dr's for hcas to process as we always have.

Pharmacies are not set up for processing bodily fluids, I'm really surprised they've gone along with it. Unless as I say there's a kerrching incentive, they surely can't be doing it because they've been told to?

YANBU I had this recently with an ear infection, I tried the GP who told me to go to the pharmacy. I went to the pharmacy and they took a look and said I needed to see a GP (and that only children can get antibiotics from a pharmacy for an ear infection, so I shouldn’t have been sent anyway).
I tried the GP again (at 2pm on a Friday), no f2f slots available, but I got a phone call. The GP was clearly annoyed, said it couldnt be an ear infection and prescribed me steroids. I tried them for a week, my ear got worse to the point I couldn’t hear. I went back to the GP, she had a look in my ear and surprise it was an infection and needed antibiotics!

I know they’re stretched and I feel bad for GPs, but I had to pay two prescriptions, had two days sickness from work, and was in agony for nearly two weeks!

I imagine a tremendous amount of pearl-clutching occurring @ Casa Musica7474 as I type ..... 🙄

Congratulations on to fellow-posters for affording OP an entirely new hobby-horse upon which to exercise her exceptionalism - pharmacists having access to her medical records! 😂

I don't care who does at the pharmacy. My point was to those saying it saves those overworked GPs time. They don't process the urine and to order a prescription takes seconds. Think they can manage that.

1001 reasons - writing notes, making referral, follow-up phone call, checking decision, looking at last thing I prescribed, notifying public health England, speaking to the pharmacist!

I'm really out now 😊

I had this recently and went to a pharmacist. I was offered an over the counter treatment (not antibiotics) which didn't work and then, after several more days of discomfort, ended up going to my GP practice to get antibiotics prescribed. If pharmacists can offer antibiotics, they should offer them not stuff that doesn't help.

It's like the walk in centre.. you just write it down and pass it to the chemist.
What's the big deal?
Gosh wasting GPs time.

it's a great service.
I suffer with cystitis a lot too.
You bring your urine sample and are brought into a consultation room. They do a dip test and will give you the antibiotic needed.
No need to waste the docs time when it can be routinely checked at the pharmacy
Quicker for everyone IMO

Surprised you're not a GP if it's so easy! You literally have no idea, it's just comical! 😂 Bet you're the first to moan 'I had to wait ages to get a GP appointment for my broken nail...'

It's. Their. Job. It isn't wasting anyone's time.

I'd suggest the only folk whose time is wasted will be pharmacy customers, as the queue gets longer while staff fanny on with bodily fluids.

Meanwhile, over at the GPs they're all sat around having a cup of tea.

Yes necessary things for a nurse or doctor at the GP surgery or hospital with a professional I will know and have seen not in a busy pharmacy, amongst staff who aren’t medical professionals with no privacy. I don’t want a rushed pharmacist that frequently changes doing any of the above things and most they won’t have cause to anyway.