Noticeboard

Medical Students

Please note from the 10th January 2018 Medical Students maybe with the doctor you have an appointment with.

Taking ANTIBIOTICS when you don't need them puts you and your family at risk

Taking antibiotics encourages harmful bacteria that live inside you to become resistant.  That means that antibiotics may not work when you really need them.  This puts you and your family at risk of a more severe or longer illness.

Take your doctor or nurse's advice when it comes to antibiotics.

Greencroft Annexe Public Notice

The Old School Surgery are planning to CLOSE Greencroft Annexe from 1st February 2018.  Until the New Year we are open for business as usual.

Practice Newsletter

Please see Practice Newsletter link on the right hand side of the home page for the latest edition of the practice newsletter.

Your NHS needs you! Reduce Prescribing Waste - please see latest news for more information

Your feedback counts

Many people don't quite know how to provide feedback on the care they have received from the NHS, but it's incredibly important to have your say so you can help shape and improve your local services.

The NHS Friends and Family Test gives you the chance to provide quick, anonymous feedback on your care and treatment experience.  All you have to do is ask to complete the Friends and Family Test in the surgery or complete online by clicking on "take the patient survey" on the home page, and you can say what went well and what you think can be improved.

Your feedback really can help to make a difference to patients' lives.  To find out more about the NHS Friends and Family Test please visit:-  www.nhs.uk/friendsandfamily 

NHS 111

You should dial 111 if you need urgent medical care when the surgery is closed.  Please refer to the opening times when we are closed section.

Zero Tolerance

We aim to treat our patients courteously at all times and expect our patients to treat our staff with due respect. We take seriously any threatening, abusive or violent behaviour against any of our staff or patients.

If a patient is violent or abusive they will be warned to stop such behaviour. If they persist, we may exercise our right to take action to have them removed, immediately if necessary, from our list of patients.

Non-NHS Services

A number of medical examinations, reports including HGV/LGV, taxi and PSV's, insurance forms and certificates are not available on the NHS, but may be provided by the GPs privately for a fee. These may be requested via the receptionist, who will inform you of the relevant charge. While the GPs endeavour to complete requests within 28 working days, clinical work must take priority.

Our doctors are unable to provide occupational health services directly with our patients, such as Hepatitis B vaccinations. You may find that your employer’s occupational health department may be able to offer these services in conjunction with ourselves

Diazepam for Fear of Flying

At The Old School Surgery, we will not prescribe Diazepam for patients who wish to use this for a fear of flying. This is for many reasons:

  • Diazepam is a sedative. This means, the medication makes you sleepy and more relaxed. If there would be an emergency during the flight, this could impair your ability to concentrate, follow instructions, or react to the situation. This could seriously affect the safety of you and the people around you.
  • Sedative drugs can make you fall asleep, however, when you sleep it is an unnatural non-REM sleep. This means, your movements during sleep are reduced and this can place you at an increased risk of developing blood clots (DVT). These blood clots are very dangerous and can even prove fatal. This risk further increases if your flight is over 4 hours long.
  • Although most people respond to benzodiazepines like Diazepam with sedation, a small proportion experience the opposite effect and can become aggressive. They can also lead to disinhibition and make you behave in ways you normally wouldn’t. This could also impact on your safety and the safety of your fellow passengers or could lead you to get in trouble with the law.
  • National prescribing guidelines followed by doctors also don’t allow the use of benzodiazepines in cases or phobia. Any doctor prescribing diazepam for a fear of flying would be taking a significant legal risk as this goes against these guidelines. Benzodiazepines are only licensed for short-term use in a crisis in generalised anxiety. If this is the problem you suffer with, you should seek proper care and support for your mental health, and it would not be advisable to go on a flight.
  • In several countries, diazepam and similar drugs are illegal. They would be confiscated, and you might find yourself in trouble with the police for being in control of an illegal substance.
  • Diazepam has a long half-life. This means it stays in your system for a significant time and you may fail random drug testing if you are subjected to such testing as is required in some jobs.

We appreciate a fear of flying is very real and very frightening and can be debilitating. However, there are much better and effective ways of tackling the problem. We recommend you tackle your problem with a Fear of Flying Course, which is run by several airlines. These courses are far more effective than diazepam, they have none of the undesirable effects and the positive effects of the courses continue after the courses have been completed.

Fear of Flying Courses

Easy Jet www.fearlessflyer.easyjet.com Tel: 0203 8131644

British Airways https://www.flyingwithconfidence.com/ Tel: 01252 793 250

Virgin Atlantic https://flyingwithoutfear.co.uk/collections Tel: 01423 714900 1252250

 

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