The first time I visited, I saw a doctor who here I will call "Mrs. M". I thought everyone was…read morereally nice, professional, and I was in good care. I'd been told to call right away that Tuesday (Monday was a holiday) if it didn't work. Because of the first visit, I was unprepared for the very bad experience I was in for when it didn't work.
There was quite a run-around on getting me back in, even though my condition could have easily turned into an emergency. (They don't do virtual visits, as Yelp lists them as doing). The phone calls to nurses didn't result in help, and one "Supervisor" I kept getting daily was particularly awful. I'll call her "Supervisor G" for story's sake.
Supervisor G was sometimes posing as though she were a nurse, others the doctor, until I was thoroughly confused. To be clear, I'm still not entirely sure and only got the term "Supervisor" from the front desk.
"Supervisor G" immediately belittled me, accusing me of not taking the medicine correctly, and treating me badly. I'm not great with voices, so if it weren't for her accent, I'd have thought I was talking to several people, as it took several calls.
After lengthy amounts of this treatment, I leveled up to win the "you may talk to a doctor" award (an actual doctor, although I'm still not clear if a "supervisor" is also a doctor). I'll call this doctor "Dr. SM". I got a second medication.
That was also on a weekend. Days later, I called in early in the morning to let them know it didn't work. I'd wanted to try it at a higher dose because it didn't make sense it wasn't working so I'd looked up information online and found an NHS recommendation for the higher dose. The supervisor in the morning didn't talk to me, but they did say that sounded reasonable to the front desk, who only admitted it after I shared the same thoughts.
Unfortunately, not having heard from them by 1:30 (the time the last bus left before the clinic closed) I called back and found a totally different set of staff. None of them knew I'd spent the morning calling, and I got Supervisor G aga
Dr. SM refused to follow the NHS recommendation followed by my request- a request that an earlier supervisor (Not Mrs. G) had told the front desk seemed reasonable and made sense. Unfortunately, this had left me with false hope and was also the reason we'd waited all day to hear from a doctor. There was a refusal from Supervisor G and Dr. SM to do this. After the last bus left and we were told there'd be an Uber (there wasn't) the medication was patched through to a local pharmacy, where she gave me a brand new medication because she refused to up the dose of the last cost us 20 dollars. We were told it would be free. It was the weekend. We don't have money to spare, but had no choice.
As I didn't have a choice and had to agree with the new medication, the bacteria would be resistant. I was extremely sick and angry, knew what they'd done was wrong as Dr.SM and Supervisor G hadn't taken my history, my weight and other factors into consideration, and so I took the tiny remainder of the first medicine at the NHS dose, and it worked. IT WOULD HAVE WORKED. Unfortunately, I had no choice but to abandon it and go to the new medicine, knowing I couldn't go back to the medication I was out of at the NHS recommended dose because by Monday it'd be resistant. By this time my problem had gone 3 weeks and was putting my kidneys in danger.
They both insisted that I had to come in for another test. Two hour ride on the bus, plus walking and wait time. Thank goodness for the one day of working medication or that'd have been impossible as buses don't allow you to ride throwing up.
I had to go so bad by the time I got there, that I too quickly took the urine test, and didn't remember to "startstop". That gives it a false negative. I was then guilted with the false negative. They suddenly fit me in with "Dr. SM" even though originally it was only supposed to be a urine test, because I'd complained online.
I was told some people my age just have UTIs forever. "Chronic Cystitis" and now mine woudl be that. Because of one poorly done urine test! And I found out later they frequently give results that are negative when they're not, even when done properly.
I asked if I should stop taking the useless antibiotic since it wasn't making me feel better. Dr. SM said "No, it's probably still killing bacteria". How is that so if there's no bacteria according to their faulty urine test?
If you have alternatives, and your condition could turn serious, don't go to them. If you have that doctor you'll end up resistant to medications and very quickly diagnosed with a "chronic" condition before your first UTI is cured. And doctors can make it "chronic" that way. Don't do it!