Re: "Antibiotics are no longer routinely given ..."
<Microbiologist hat>
Currently in our Lab, we use traditional culture/sensitivities methods to check urines. A negative result will be available in 24hrs. A positive result is trickier. Depending on how hard the organism is to identify and the sensitivity pattern, it can take 36 to 48hrs to give you a result.
What a clinician does with that result is variable as well. A lot depends on how ill/frail the patient is (or how young) and whether they're immunosuppressed. The bottom (front-bottom in this case) line is that most simple UTIs clear up themselves if you drink plenty of water and the urine doesn't look like pus to start with. Persistent and chronic UTIs in the very young, the very old and the debilitated sometimes need more work/antibiotics.
note 1: A&E will only use a dipstick and check for protein in the urine - that's not what I would call a result. That can only come from taking a sample and sending it to the lab.
note 2: "something as basic as a urine test" (snort)
see http://labtestsonline.org.uk/understanding/analytes/urine-culture/tab/faq/ if you can be bothered
</Microbiologist hat>