Should you always treat symptoms of UTI with antibiotics?

[Feistywoman]

GP quite dismissive of us calling out the out of services doc twice-they tested urine, found traces of infections, blood the second time and gave antibiotics. She said they arent certain UTI as the urine wasnt sent to lab.

Yet she has prescribed antibiotices before sending urine to lab. She isnt very helpful to talk to.

She doesnt do home visits, it can be hard to get the urine to the GP, especially in time to make the courier service that takes it to the lab.Out of services doctors have been great with advice, very nice when they come out, understanding.

Hi, I work in a hospital microbiology lab. If you can get red top boric acid containers they preserve the sample for up to 3 days which will save you the mad dash to the surgery. Foul smelling and cloudy does not always come back with an infection surprisingly enough. A lot of GPs take a stab in the dark with abx to try to alleviate a patients symptoms, usually trimethoprim or nitrofurantion but again these are not always sensitive. All labs work differently but in ours for a positive result it can take over 48 hours for sensitivities to be released. Hope you get some more help from your surgery