Prescriptions

The medications listed at the end of this notice, have been identified by the practice, and most other practices, as emergency medications without which the patient could come to significant harm within 72 hours. Any other medications can be dispensed after 72 hours using the normal repeat prescription service. Certain alternatives can be obtained from the pharmacy. Your pharmacist will be able to advise you on this.

Enderley Road Medical Centre has been committed to completing prescription requests within 3 working days. This can be done at reception, via our website or online (additional registration required). We do not take prescription requests over the phone. Generally, patients will know a week beforehand when they are coming towards needing a new prescription. If you have difficulty organising prescription requests, please discuss with your pharmacist, or medical centre receptionist.

Holidays are often booked weeks or months in advance. Common things to consider in preparation are holiday insurance, sun protection, transport… and your routine medications. Please ensure appropriate notice is given for these.

We are able to supply a maximum of 2 months of medications only.

Patients come to us, asking us to prescribe diazepam for fear of flying. There are a number of very good reasons why prescribing this drug is not recommended. 

1) Diazepam is a sedative, which means it makes you sleepy and more relaxed. If there is an emergency during the flight it may impair your ability to concentrate, follow instructions and react to the situation. This could have serious safety consequences for you and those around you. 

2) Sedative drugs can make you fall asleep, however when you do sleep it is an unnatural non-REM sleep. This means you won’t move around as much as during natural sleep. This can cause you to be at increased risk of developing a blood clot (DVT) in the leg or even the lung. Blood clots are very dangerous and can even prove fatal. This risk is even greater if your flight is greater than 4 hours. 

3) Whilst most people find benzodiazepines like diazepam sedating, a small number have paradoxical agitation and increased aggression. They can also cause disinhibition and lead you to behave in a way that you would not normally. This could impact on your safety as well as that of other passengers and could also get you into trouble with the law.

4) According to the prescribing guidelines doctors follow (BNF) Benzodiazepines are contraindicated (not allowed) in treating phobia. Your doctor would be taking a significant legal risk by prescribing against these guidelines. They are only licensed short term for a crisis in generalised anxiety. If this is the case, you should be getting proper care and support for your mental health and not going on a flight. 

5) Diazepam and similar drugs are illegal in a number of countries. They may be confiscated or you may find yourself in trouble with the police. 

6) Diazepam stays in your system for quite a while. If your job requires you to submit to random drug testing you may fail this having taken diazepam.

We appreciate that fear of flying is very real and very frightening. A much better approach is to tackle this properly with a Fear of Flying course run by the airlines. We have listed a number of these below. 

Easy Jet http://www.fearlessflyer.easyjet.com
British Airways http://www.flyingwithconfidence.com/courses/venues/glasgow 
Virgin https://www.flyingwithoutfear.co.uk/fear-of-flying-courses/adult-course/

If you have had a clinic appointment at hospital with a consultant, you may have been given a 2 week hospital prescription. Please ensure you do not leave the hospital without seeing the hospital pharmacist .This script is not valid in community pharmacies. If it is closed, please make all efforts to attend or ask someone to attend the next day to collect this. Not all hospital prescriptions are licensed to be prescribed by GPs. They are not emergency medications. Similarly, all written correspondence from the hospital needs 72 hours to be processed.

Please enquire with reception if you have any further enquiries.

At the Enderley Road Medical Centre, we will not tolerate aggression or violence towards any of our staff; they have been instructed to follow this policy by senior doctors at the practice and have been specifically asked not to disturb the duty doctor for emergency prescriptions.

Thank you for your cooperation.
Partners, Enderley Road Medical Centre

• Salbutamol / Ventolin reliever spray
• GTN spray
• Medications for an arrhythmia- B blocker/verapamil/diltiazem/amiodarone
• Oral nitrates
• Insulin
• Adrenaline pen
• Contraceptive pills 28 days’ supply
• Oral steroids (prednisolone/dexamethasone) if on regular dose
• Palliative care patient medications
• Lithium/antipsychotics- olanzapine, risperidone
• Methotrexate/DMARDs
• Warfarin/NOAC
• Parkinsons disease meds
• Anti-epileptics- phenytoin, sodium valproate
• Specialised baby milks