Sedatives For Scans / Procedures Performed By Organisations External To Kingswood Surgery

We are unable to prescribe sedatives, such as diazepam, for any procedure or scan being undertaken outside of Kingswood Surgery, 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 Kingswood Surgery 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.
• All hospital consultants, both those requesting imaging and those providing it, have access to the same prescribing abilities as GPs. If the requesting Doctor feels 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. 

Feel free to show this policy to your hospital team or dentist.

Further Information

 The Royal College of Radiologists sets out clear guidance for sedation in hospital radiology departments (https://www.rcr.ac.uk/system/files/publication/field_publication_files/bfcr182_safe_sedation.pdf) which states “Sedation and analgesia should be administered by a competent and well-trained sedation and oversight provided by a sedation committee within the institution”.

The Intercollegiate Advisory Committee for Sedation in Dentistry has a similar guideline (https://www.saad.org.uk/IACSD%202020.pdf) which states “The monitoring and discharge requirements for oral sedation are the same as for intravenous sedation. Oral sedation must only be administered in the place where the dental treatment is provided and must only be carried out by practitioners who are already competent in intravenous sedation.”

As a result, responsibility for this type of treatment lies with your dentist or hospital staff, and not your GP. If you feel this is required, we suggest consulting with your dentist or the hospital teams in good time before any scans or treatments occur.

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)