GP's now prescribing antibiotics Willy nilly

[LifesTooShortYOLO]

Has anyone else noticed GPs now dishing out Antibiotics way more since Covid, I mean I remember a time when it was like getting blood out of a stone trying to get antibiotics for a genuine chest infection, but now it seems GP's are dishing them out willy nilly!
My DS had ear ache, hot burning ear and temp last month and after a phone consultation they prescribed antibiotics for him and then 4 weeks later he had the same symptoms and they gave another course saying it 'sounded' like the ear infection didn't fully clear up. All this without actually physically looking into his ear!
Now I've had a cold/cough (negative PCR) for nearly 3 weeks and coughing up green phlegm, i filled out an online consult and I had a call from the Gp this eve who had done some antibiotics' incase I feel like I need them 🤷🏻‍♀️
Now I have to make the decision on whether to take them or not and again no one has actually physically listened to my chest which I'm pretty sure was standard before Covid?!
I just feel like due to Covid everything else has gone out of the window 🤦🏻‍♀️

I agree, OP. My dentist certainly has changed her tune, before Covid it was really hard to get antibiotics even if you had an infection and if you did have them prescribed, there were all sorts of warnings and the likelihood of not getting them again any time soon! But as soon as Covid hit, I phoned up with a gum infection and got antibiotics immediately, no quibbles, not seen either!

They might as well. Obviously they're not always needed but with such high levels of Covid around, it's not such a bad idea to take precautionary antibiotics.

It's not as if it will make much difference to antibiotic resistance. Not unless and until the widespread heavy use in industrial farming is tackled.

@Tealightsandd

They might as well. Obviously they're not always needed but with such high levels of Covid around, it's not such a bad idea to take precautionary antibiotics.

It's not as if it will make much difference to antibiotic resistance. Not unless and until the widespread heavy use in industrial farming is tackled.

But antibiotics won't treat Covid as it's a virus 🤨

Yes. I had a bad case of tonsillitis last autumn and they kept giving me stronger and stronger antibiotics. Three lots in the end without even looking in my mouth!

But antibiotics won't treat Covid as it's a virus

Yes - a virus that often causes secondary bacterial infections including bacterial (as well as viral) pneumonia. Which are best treated early.

@Tealightsandd

But antibiotics won't treat Covid as it's a virus

Yes - a virus that often causes secondary bacterial infections including bacterial (as well as viral) pneumonia. Which are best treated early.

What are your sources/facts on Antibiotic resistance? This is one of the things that concerns me 🙁

Good luck when antibiotic resistance really kicks in, covid will look like a walk in the park

@AlaskaThunderfuckHiiiiiiiii

Good luck when antibiotic resistance really kicks in, covid will look like a walk in the park

How do you mean? This is what worries me ☹️

@AlaskaThunderfuckHiiiiiiiii

Good luck when antibiotic resistance really kicks in, covid will look like a walk in the park

The real problem is with industrial farming.

Industrial farming, industrial over prescription of antibiotics.

It concerns me too OP. This article is a couple of years old but nothing much has changed.

www.theguardian.com/society/2017/dec/05/over-use-of-antibiotics-in-farming-is-a-major-new-threat-to-human-health-says-un

Yes farming doesn’t help but neither does GPs over prescribing cause you know covid is the only thing that matters, no one is able to think outside of covid and the knock on effects this will have

@LifesTooShortYOLO there are more and more antibiotic resistant bugs emerging

The extent of industrial farming and it's heavy use of antibiotics makes GP prescribing of antibiotics pretty irrelevant. It doesn't make any meaningful difference either way. The only way to deal with antibiotic resistance is to tackle the intensive use in farming.

It's a lot easier to just prescribe antibiotics, then they don't have to bother to see you,

Not just antibiotics in my experience, any old drugs seem to be prescribed willy nilly these days! In the space of one year I’ve had two courses of antibiotics that I didn’t need from being misdiagnosed over the phone as well as amitriptyline and gabapentin for ‘nerve’ pain I didn’t have a concert diagnosis for! I’ve been having symptoms for the past 6 months which I think could be adult onset asthma (I’m at risk) but I won’t be seen in person by the GP unless I have a negative PCR test because it could be COVID! Or I could book an appointment with a private GP where I don’t need any kind of COVID test! So frustrating.

If you have recently taken a course of antibiotics, consider doing all you can for your gut microbiota (prebiotics, fruit and veg, prebiotics, fermented foods) because a lot of physical and mental health issues have now been correlated with antibiotic use - needs more investigation but probably a huge issue.

Ds always gets antibiotics in that way. I describe the symptoms and the GP prescribes. He hasn't physically been at the Dr's in years. So nothing has changed for us.

GP prescribed three different things for my child when he had a gunky eye which wasn't going away after a couple of weeks. She said that because she was only able to speak on the phone and not see him I should just try each of the 3 things until one of them worked

GP wanted to prescribe antibiotics over the phone for 16 month old DS without even looking at him- coughing up green phlegm and very congested sinuses, would only sleep upright (on me) for weeks, off his food for about 3 weeks and generally miserable. When I challenged his rationale and my concerns about antibiotic resistance GP said "so what do you want from this appointment?". I basically had to argue the toss for them to accept a sample of phlegm so if it did need antibiotics DS would get the right ones.

The mind boggles.

@Tealightsandd

But antibiotics won't treat Covid as it's a virus

Yes - a virus that often causes secondary bacterial infections including bacterial (as well as viral) pneumonia. Which are best treated early.

You can't treat a secondary bacterial infection prophylacticly. You have to wait for the primary viral infection to cause the secondary infection.

The mind does indeed boggle.

You can't treat a secondary bacterial infection prophylacticly. You have to wait for the primary viral infection to cause the secondary infection.

Well you'd better tell the doctors then. It's been done by many, even before Covid.

Obviously it depends on the individual doctor/hospitality policies and decisions, but it's definitely being done.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/antibiotics/uses/

My ten year old got prescribed antibiotics for her acne by a nurse practitioner. She's never been seen by anyone at the surgery. Didn't even ask for photos! I didn't pick them up, the gel on it's own worked fine.

Just woke up and realised I expressed myself badly!! Came down to rectify, and you had already replied tealight.

Meant to say, along the lines of, it is not normal practice to prescribe antibiotics to someone 'in case' they get a bacterial infection, unless there are special circumstances.
Didn't mean to use the word prophylactically!

Before I retired I was a nurse and we did very occasionally give antibiotics without evidence of infection.

But not to someone if they rang the ward to say they though they might have an infection. And then tell them it was up to them if they took them, which is what OP seems to be describing.

Totally yes. Have been prescribed them twice in the past 18 months, DD's and DH similar. Once sensibly, the other times as far as I can see in a precautionary manner. Makes sense though I think?