Seeking Medical Treatment Abroad

Medical treatment abroad (also known as medical tourism) is available to those who wish to privately fund their own treatment. There is much to consider before making any arrangements such as the post operative/treatment aftercare which may not be routinely funded or offered by the NHS. The links below provide a variety of advice and guidance.

Prescribing sedatives for hospital procedures

After very careful consideration, Bridge Road Surgery has decided to no longer prescribe diazepam for patients having MRI scans or other investigative procedures. This is not a decision we took lightly; we have a duty of care to provide safe, consistent, and appropriate care for our patients. We hope the reasons outlined below help to explain our main concerns.

  • Small doses of benzodiazepines such at 2mg diazepam are probably sub-therapeutic for most adults for any effective sedation. Conversely anxiolytics can have an idiosyncratic response in patients, and even very small doses can cause increased agitation in some subsets of patients.
  • A patient may take a sedative ‘an hour’ before their assumed procedure, to then attend the hospital to find their procedure has been delayed, therefore the timing of the anxiolytic being sub optimal.
  • All hospital consultants, both those requesting imaging and those providing it, have access to the same prescribing abilities as GPs. If a patient needs a certain medication to enable an investigation to go ahead, they are just as well positioned to provide a prescription, either through the hospital pharmacy or a hospital FP10.
  • Sedated patients should be regularly monitored. The prescriber is best place to provide this monitoring in the knowledge of what has been prescribed. GPs are not in a position to monitor the patient during their procedure.
  • The Royal College of Radiologists‘ own guidelines on sedation for imaging makes no mention of GP involvement or provision of low dose anxiolytics and stresses the importance of experienced well-trained staff involved and the monitoring of sedated patients:

Sedation, analgesia and anaesthesia in the radiology department, second edition. (rcr.ac.uk)

Zero Tolerance

The NHS operates a zero tolerance policy with regard to violence and abuse and the practice has the right to remove violent patients from the list with immediate effect in order to safeguard practice staff, patients and other persons.

Violence in this context includes actual or threatened physical violence or verbal abuse which leads to fear for a person’s safety.

In this situation we will notify the patient in writing of their removal from the list and record in the patient’s medical records the fact of the removal and the circumstances leading to it.

Provider Processors

Multi Functional Devices

TeleComms

Healthcare Software

Website Hosting / Mailing

Healthcare Hardware

IT Service Provider

Digital Dictation

Digital Redaction / Scanning

Payroll / Finance

Provision of Clinical System

Training

Freedom of Information

Information about the GPs and the practice required for disclosure under this act can be made available to the public. All requests for such information should be made to the practice manager.

There are seven classes of information:

  • Who we are and what we do
  • What we spend and how we spend it
  • What our priorities are and how we are doing
  • How we make decisions
  • Our policies and procedures
  • Lists and registers
  • Services the practice offers

For more information, please review the Information Commissioner’s Office guide on the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Chaperones

All patients are entitled to have a chaperone present for any consultation.

Please let us know at the time of requesting an appointment or speak to your GP.

Teaching Practice

Medical Students

We are a teaching practice and students sometimes sit in with the doctors and nurses. If you prefer not to have a student sitting in, please let the doctor or receptionist know.

General Practitioner Registrars

GP registrars are often attached to the practice and are fully qualified doctors gaining experience in general practice.

Videoing Consultations

As part of on-going training some doctors may on occasion video their consultations. Consent is always obtained from patients prior to their appointment being recorded. You of course have the opportunity to decline.

Suggestions, Comments and Complaints

We are always interested in hearing feedback from our patients, good or bad. For any suggestions and comments, please use our Feedback triage. If you feel it necessary, you can make a complaint.

All of our feedback is collated and reviewed on a regular basis with our Patient Participation Group.

Complaints

If you have any complaints or concerns about the service that you have received from the doctors or staff working for the practice, please let us know.

We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If your problem cannot be sorted out in this way and you wish to make a complaint, we would like you to let us know as soon as possible, ideally within a matter of days or at most a few weeks. This will enable us to establish what happened more easily.

If it is not possible to do that, please let us have details of your complaint:

  • Within 6 months of the incident that caused the problem
  • Within 6 months of discovering that you have a problem, provided that is within 12 months of the incident

The practice manager will be pleased to deal with any complaint. They will explain the procedure to you and make sure that your concerns are dealt with promptly.

You can make your complaint either:

  • by contacting reception
  • in writing – some complaints may be easier to explain in writing, please give as much information as you can, then send your complaint to the practice for the attention of the practice manager

What we will do

Our complaints procedure is designed to make sure that we settle any complaints as quickly as possible.

We will acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days and will advise how long we believe your complaint will take to investigate.

When we look into your complaint, we shall aim to:

  • Find out what happened and what went wrong
  • Make it possible for you to discuss the problem with those concerned, if you would like this
  • Make sure you receive an apology, where appropriate
  • Identify what we can do to make sure the problem doesn’t happen again.

At the end of the investigation your complaint will be discussed with you in detail, either in person or in writing.

Complaining on behalf of someone else

Please note that we keep strictly to the rules of medical confidentiality. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we have to know that you have his or her permission to do so. A note signed by the person concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable (because of illness) of providing this.

Further help required?

If you remain dissatisfied with our response, you may contact the ombudsman for a review of your complaint.

This can be done by contacting the following address:

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman,
Millbank Tower,
Millbank,
London,
SW1P 4QP

Telephone: 0345 0154033

Website: www.ombudsman.org.uk

You may also write directly to NHS England. However, NHS England will not deal with your complaint if you have already been through the practice complaints procedure.

You may contact NHS England in the following ways:

Customer Contact Centre,
NHS England,
PO Box 16738,
Redditch,
B97 9PT

Telephone: 0300 311 22 33

Email: england.contactus@nhs.net

The Independent Complaints and Advocacy Service (ICAS) can provide free and confidential information and assistance to anyone who wishes to make a complaint about NHS services.

VoiceAbility,
St Clement’s Hospital,
Foxhall Road,
Ipswich,
Suffolk,
IP3 8LS

Telephone: 0300 330 5454

Email: nhscomplaints@voiceability.org

Named GP

All patients registered at The Bridge Road Surgery have a named doctor who has overall responsibility for your care and support.

Patients should contact the practice if you wish to know who this is, and that if you have a preference as to which GP that is, the practice will make reasonable efforts to accommodate this request.

As a patient, you have the right to express preference as to which GP you wish to see. However, if you require an appointment and your preferred GP is not available, you will be offered an appointment with another doctor. If you still wish to see your preferred GP, you may have to wait longer.