I’m not allergic to any antibiotic that I know of, but I once suffered some horrible side effects when a 2nd, new drug, an antibiotic I had never taken previously, interacted with a different type of drug I was already taking, and which the doctor definitely did know about.

That kind of bad interaction isn’t an allergy. It’s probably more common than allergies and often more serious. No, it’s not surprising at all, when you toss in a 3rd or 4th drug into the mix of one person’s body, which happens to a lot of women once they reach a certain age and their doctor thinks it’s easier to just prescribe Yet Another Drug Again– Yada Yada Yada– without much concern for how a woman will react, given her size, her resistance, and her financial struggle to pay for the stuff.

I’m allergic to every physician who assumes drugs are the answer to everything that ails ya.

But your article already gave me the answer and it’s at the heart of the problem: for years we’ve been paying plenty extra money to doctors and to the insurance, hospital, and drug corporations, but we’re just not getting what we’re paying for.

In the other sense of the word, a lot of us aren’t getting that there are in fact Americans who will suffer and die today because medical care is not affordable or available to them, period. The gaps are miles wide, and the Americans who fall through are not weird exceptions.

If you have a choice for a certain drug you can discuss it with the doctor. There are usually several different drugs for each ailment which are approved by the NHS, so if there is an alternative choice you can discuss it, and if it is NHS approved you will be given your preffered choice (If the doctor agrees that it is the right thing to do depending on medical reasons)

When drugs are not approved by the NHS, it is usually because they have yet to pass certain tests and to have had their side-effects fully analysed. Sometimes it is because it is not available yet, and will be in the near future when it has been fully tested.

If you don’t agree with the assement you would still have the choice of buying it privately though this could be expensive. The number of drugs which are not NHS approved is very small, but sometimes they do get publicised because of the nature of the illness that they relate to. I know that they do run very stringent tests on medications before they approve them, and this is why sometimes they are not on the list yet.

One thing I would say is that we always get asked to fill in questionairres to tell if we have had adverse reactions to certain medications in the past, including antiobiotics, and those go on your record so they know what you are allergic to. They will also ask with the patient at the time of prescribing them to make sure there are no known allergies

Yes, we usually get enough time and attention. GP (General Practioner) doctors allocate each patient 10 minutes which is usually plenty. If it is something of a serious nature they will sometimes take longer, but keeping within the timeframe ensures that there is not a long waiting time for each patient as you get given your appointment time and it is usually about right. I never feel rushed (unless on occasion there are several things I want to discuss, in which case I say the list when I first go in)

In my doctors I very rarely have to wait in the waiting room for more than about 5 minutes. They space out the appointments at 15 minute intervals as far as I can tell.

It is one of many things I like that doctors bills are never mentioned!

You say, “If it is a minor ailment, I go to see my doctor, and if necessary she refers me to the appropriate specialist or gives me a pre$cription.”

American doctors over-expose us to antibiotics because they write too many such drug pre$criptions in the dark. For about half of their antibiotic pre$criptions, they don’t know if the illness is actually caused by a bacterium. They don’t even know if the antibiotic will be fully effective against whatever bacterial infection the person does have. They often don’t know if the person has other conditions or drugs that might lead to a negative interaction with the new pre$cription.

Are antibiotics used excessively in your country, and btw, what choices do you have if you want a certain drug but your doctor must prescribe another because it’s approved by the NHS?