Practice Policies & Patient Information
Access to Medical Records
Please click here to download the form.
Complaints, Concerns or Compliments
We welcome suggestions as to how we might improve our services to you.
Please write to the Management Team.
If you have any complaints, concerns or compliments about the
service that you have received from the doctors or staff working for this practice, please let us know.
Complaints can be made either in person or in writing.
If you wish to complain in writing, please address your letter to
the Management Team.
Please give as much information as you can in order to help us resolve your complaint more efficiently.
Further information on how your complaint will be dealt with can be found in the Practice Complaints Leaflet, available from reception.
Where Are We?
The Medical Centre – Driffield Surgery
Cranwell Road
Driffield
YO25 6UH
The Medical Centre – Wetwang Surgery
48 Southfield Road
Wetwang
YO25 9XX
NHS England
Details of primary medical services in the area can be obtained from NHS England:
Website: www.england.nhs.uk
Telephone: 0300 311 22 33
Email: [email protected]
By post: NHS England
PO BOX 16738
Redditch
B97 9PT
Consent and Identification
We operate a strict code of confidentiality in line with NHS and GDPR data regulations. Access to patient information will only be given to a third party with the written consent of the patient concerned.
Being a next of kin does not automatically grant you access to a patient’s information. Consent forms and Proxy access forms are available to download.
We will always ask for a patients ID when giving information. The types of ID that are accepted by the NHS are below.
The options for presentation of documents are as follows:
- Two pieces of Level 3 evidence; or
- One piece of Level 3 evidence and one piece of Level 2 evidence
One piece of evidence must include a photograph.
| Level 2 Identity Evidence | Level 3 Identity Evidence |
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Fear of Flying Prescribing Policy
At The Medical Centre, we will no longer 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.
Examples of Fear of Flying Courses –
Easy Jet
https://www.fearlessflyer.easyjet.com/
Tel: 0203 8131644
British Airways
GP Earnings
GP Earnings 21/22
NHS England requires that the net earnings of doctors engaged in the practice is publicized, and the
required disclosure is shown below.
However, it should be noted that the prescribed method for calculating earning is potentially
misleading because it takes no account of how much time doctors spend working in the practice,
and should not be used to form any judgment about GP earnings, nor to make any comparison with
any other practice.
All GP practices are required to declare the mean earnings (e.g. average pay) for GPs working to deliver NHS services to patients at each practice.
The average pay for GPs working in The Medical Practice (Driffield) in the last financial year [2021/22] was £92,836 before tax and National Insurance. This is for 1 full time and 7 part time GPs who worked in the practice for more than six months.
How we use your information
We will only ever use or pass on information about you if others involved in your care have a genuine need for it.
- We collect and hold data about you for the purpose of providing safe and effective healthcare
- Your information may be shared with our partner organisations to audit services and help provide you with better care
- Information sharing is subject to strict agreements on how it is used and we will only share your information outside of our partner organisations with your consent*
- If you are happy with how we use your information you do not need to do anything
- If you do not want your information to be used for any purpose beyond providing your care please let us know so we can code your record appropriately
- You can object to sharing information with other health care providers but if this limits your treatment options we will tell you
- Our guiding principle is that we are holding your information in the strictest confidence
*Unless the health & safety of others is at risk, the law requires it or it is required to carry out a statutory function
This Practice have appointed Barry Jackson to be the Data Protection Officer (DPO).
He is employed by N3i and can be contacted through their service desk on phone: 0300 002 0001 or email: [email protected].
Privacy Notice
Sedatives For Scans / Procedures Performed By Organisations External To The Medical Centre.
We are unable to prescribe sedatives, such as diazepam, for any procedure or scan being undertaken outside of The Medical Centre, this includes MRI scans and dental procedures.
If you feel you need sedation in such circumstances, please speak to the team undertaking the procedure or scan, as they are responsible for providing this if needed.
Sedatives are medicines which make patients sleepy and relaxed. There are several reasons why healthcare practitioners at The Medical Centre do not prescribe these medicines for procedures outside of our practice:
- GPs are not trained to provide the correct level of sedation for a procedure / scan. Providing too little sedation won’t help you, providing too much sedation can make you too sleepy, which could lead to the procedure being cancelled. Too much sedation can dangerously affect your breathing. After taking a sedative for a procedure or scan, you will need to be closely monitored to keep you safe.
- Although diazepam makes most people who take it sleepy, in some rare situations it can have an opposite effect and make people aggressive or agitated.
- Scans and hospital procedures are often delayed, therefore the team performing he procedure or scan should provide the sedation, to ensure you become sleepy and relaxed at the right time.
Feel free to show this policy to your hospital team or dentist.
Further Information
For more information, please see the following patient information leaflet published by the Royal College of Anaesthetists:
http://rcoa.ac.uk/sites/default/files/documents/2022-06/12-SedationExp2021web.pdf (link checked October 2022)
The following links provide further information:
Sedation, analgesia and anaesthesia in the radiology department – Royal College of Radiologists
https://www.rcr.ac.uk/system/files/publication/field_publication_files/bfcr182_safe_sedation.pdf (link checked October 2022)
Safe Sedation Practice for Healthcare Professionals: Standards and Guidance – Academy of Medical Royal Colleges
Summary Care Record (SCR)
Your SCR is a short summary of your GP medical records. It tells other health and care staff who care for you about your medications and your allergies. This means they can give you better care if you need health care away from your usual doctor’s surgery, for example:
· in an emergency
· when you’re on holiday
· when your surgery is closed
· at out-patient clinics
· when you visit a pharmacy
We can add more information from your medical records to your SCR if you wish, including health problems like dementia or diabetes, details of your carer, your treatment preferences and communication needs, for example if you have hearing difficulties or need an interpreter. This will help medical staff care for you properly, and respect your choices, when you need care away from your GP surgery. When you are treated away from your usual doctor’s surgery, the health care staff there can’t see your GP medical records. Looking at your SCR can speed up your care and make sure you are given the right medicines and treatment.
Opting out
SCR’s help improve your care but you can opt out if you wish, just complete an opt out form and return it to the surgery.
Further information about SCR’s can be found here.