"Seen quickly but dismissive doctor."

I attended the clinic on Good Friday morning (my GP surgery was closed) as I had developed a very painful throat overnight. I get tonsillitis/ throat infections regularly so I know what the warning signs are, and I could see one of my tonsils had turned white. The receptionist and assessing nurse were very friendly and I was seen relatively quickly despite it being very busy.

The doctor I saw was very friendly, however I felt the doctor was quite dismissive of my request for antibiotics; the doctor had a quick look in my throat and said it was a viral infection and that antibiotics wouldn’t work, but the doctor would give me some anyway, and asked me which ones I wanted. I didn’t feel that the doctor did a thorough assessment, but I got the tablets I thought would help me so left a happy customer.

2 days later, after spending 48 hours in bed with a horrible fever and being unable to swallow, and with, my housemate drove me to A&E where I was promptly seen by the ear nose and throat specialist who promptly put me on a steroid drip, and was given 2 sets of antibiotics for 10 days. The diagnosis was acute bacterial tonsillitis and peritonsillar cellulitus.

The doctor I saw at A&E told me if I had left it any later it could have developed into Quinsy, which can be really serious.

I feel the trip to A&E could have been avoided and I could have started the right treatment before it became serious if the doctor had not been so quick to dismiss it so quickly as ‘just a viral infection’; I could see myself that this wasn’t the case. As such I have little faith in the doctors at this practice.