SCA practice case · Telephone consultation
“Burning waterworks at 24”
Telephone consultation
Adult patient
Straightforward
Gender, reproductive & sexual healthHealth disadvantage & vulnerabilities
The candidate brief
This is what you would read in the 3-minute window before the patient connects. Read it once, note two or three hypotheses and one thing you must not miss, then stop.
Patient
Jordan Walsh · 24-year-old man
Setting
Telephone appointment — patient requested antibiotics.
Past history
- No significant past medical history
- No previous urinary tract infections
Medication
- No regular medication
Allergies
No known drug allergies
Recent notes
No consultations in the past year. Reception note: asked for “antibiotics for a water infection” — five days of burning on passing urine — and whether the prescription could go to a pharmacy near his work rather than the local one.
Reason for contact
Telephone appointment requesting antibiotics for a suspected urine infection.
Practise this case
The full case is in the Hot Seat with the Gold plan. You get a 12-minute timer, a role-player script with facts released only when asked, examiner checkpoints by the three RCGP domains, a model consultation and the guidance behind it.
What this case tests
Show the learning points (spoiler: read after you have practised)
Dysuria in a young man is urethritis until proven otherwise — UTI is rare in young men and "antibiotics without testing" is the station’s trapdoor. The marks live in the sexual history taken without judgement, test-first logic with window periods, partner notification handled honestly, and finding the hidden agenda: the secrecy request and the disguised HIV question. Confidentiality, stated early and plainly, is the lever that makes honesty possible.
The guidance behind it
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