Diazepam not prescribed for the fear of flying
The practice has made a decision that we will not prescribe Diazepam for patients who wish to use this for a fear of flying.
We have made this decision due to the following reasons:
- Diazepam is a sedative. This means, the medication makes you sleepy and more relaxed. If there were to 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 prescribers also don’t allow the use of benzodiazepines in cases or phobia. Any prescriber 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 for your place of work.
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.
For help for the fear of flying, please visit:
Publication of earnings (31 March 2024)
All GP practices are required to declare the mean earnings (e.g. average) for GPs working to deliver NHS services to patients at each practice.
The average pay for GPs working in the Bloomfield Medical Centre in the last financial year before tax and National Insurance was £40,978.
This is for 4 full time GPs, 9 part time GPs, and 1 locum GP who worked in the practice for more than 6 months.
It should be noted that the prescribed method for calculating earnings 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 judgement about GP earnings, nor to make any comparison with any other practice.
Zero tolerance
We do NOT tolerate abusive behaviour to any of our hard work staff in any way, and we take all cases of abuse to our staff very seriously.
This practice supports the national campaign for zero tolerance to all members of NHS staff, as we have a right to care for people without the fear of being attacked or abused in any way. Our staff are fully trained to be polite and helpful, and we expect the same in return for this. All forms of aggressive behaviour will not be tolerated, and we actively remove abusive patients from our surgery, and in some cases, contact the police.
Forms of abuse include, but are not limited to:
- Rude or explicit language.
- Physical violence.
- Threatening behaviour.
- Verbal abuse and insults.
- Racial abuse.
- Sexual harassment.
