having a cold in England vs France

[fredly]

You have to understand, I don't want to start an argument here or another France/England war, but here's the situation. My dd (15mths) caught a cold something like 2 months ago. After about 5 weeks I decided I had given her antibodies enough chance, and as she was not eating at all, I went to my gp who gently showed me the way out and told me to be patient. The pharmacist's best effort was to give me calpol, obviously useless to cure a cold or anything else. Then I went to France and I saw light at the end of the tunnel. The pharmacist was amazed by the lack of help I was given in England, and gave me medecine that cure my dd is less than a week.
So what is it ? gps can't be bothered ? I'm really interested to know what you think.

However...if you had gone to another doctor in England (not suggesting that you should have done or that this would have been practical) you may have encountered a different response?

Clinical practices differ between GPs ? - not necessarily a 'country' thing.

Glad she is better now!

Was it antibiotics? The do seem more keen to give ABs in Europe. I didn't take DS for just that reason although he had a cold over over 6 weeks. Finally took him last week and he had a sinus infection!

I've had a sinus infection and known it - I've gotten them nearly all my life - and had to fight for ABs here. They always try to give me amoxycillin, which no longer works on me.

no AB, I was given something to blow her nose with since she can't do it by herself, a saline solution and an antiseptic spray. Worked wonders.

and it's no longer true that they give AB easily in France anymore.

saline and antisceptic do not cure colds - it would have cleared up by then anyway.

The usefulness of saline solution for unblocking little noses safely is v. underemployed in the UK IME though Senora...from my experiences (not extensive) of French healthcare, the general medicine doctors you typically see if you have something like cystitis or a severe head cold/query sinus infection will often check you more thoroughly than a British GP would, and prescribe (or suggest non-prescription) treatments that go more towards the homoeopathic/herbalist spectrum.
I was given a zinc spray for tonsillitis 20 years ago in France and had never seen the like. It made me feel much better in 24 hours...
Vive la France fredly...of course you pay a lot more for it all over there don't you, but I believe it currently has the best overall healthcare services in Europe. Glad she is feeling better now

My GP always gives saline solution. But he is a marvel (and I have the hots for him)

Probably the fact you could aspirate her nose helped clear the mucous and relieved the symptoms, but that stuff is just as readily available in UK as abroad. Think advice would vary from one dr/pharmacist to another whereever you are and your dd's cold may simply have run its course.

The main difference I found when we lived in Switzerland was that they would usually do a blood test before prescribing ab's - a simple 5 minute job with a needle of blood to check for bacterial infection.

I know it's available Lizs, but if GPs and HVs (unlike HMC's hunk of burning medically-qualified love) don't tip parents off about it, I don't think it is known how useful it can be. No-one ever told me about it at ds' otherwise really good medical practice, for example, and it was a midwife who told me to ask for it when dd came down with a stinker at 6 weeks old.

My GP gave me saline solution for DS's nose when he was a few weeks old. Now granted as he actually had what turned out to be whooping cough it didn't do a whole lot of good, but they did give it...