New law on driving having taken certain drugs - March 2015

Key messages

A new law on driving after taking certain drugs (including some medicines – see below) is coming into force in March 2015. This law states that it is an offence to drive with certain drugs above specified levels in the body, whether your driving is impaired or not

If your driving is impaired then you are guilty of breaking the law

What is the issue?

The list of drugs includes certain medicines that are sometimes abused, such as medicines used to treat:

• extreme pain (morphine, diamorphine, ketamine)

• anxiety or inability to sleep (diazepam, clonazepam, lorazepam, oxazepam, temazepam)

• drug addiction (methadone)

• attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, also known as ADHD (amphetamine)

• multiple sclerosis (nabiximols)

If you are found to be driving with any of these medicines above the limits in your body, you could be guilty of breaking the law. But if you are taking the medicines according to the advice of your prescriber or leaflet in the package, and your driving is not impaired, then you are not guilty of breaking this law.

What will happen if I’m stopped by the police?

The police may use a roadside test to see if you have taken any of the drugs. If the test detects any relevant drugs, the type and level of the drugs in your body can be confirmed by a blood test taken at the police station. The law provides you with a “medical defence”. This states that you are not guilty if:

• the medicine was prescribed, supplied, or sold to you to treat a medical or dental problem, and

• you took the medicine according to the instructions given by the prescriber or the information provided with the medicine.

But if your driving is impaired, you are guilty of breaking the law.

What should I do if I need to take any of the specified medicines?

Keep taking your medicine as prescribed. Check the leaflet that comes with your medicine for information on how your medicine may affect your driving ability. Do not drive while taking your medicine until you know how it affects you. Do not drive if you feel drowsy, dizzy, unable to concentrate or make decisions, or if you have blurred or double vision.

For further information on this new law, go to:www.gov.uk/government/collections/drug-driving

Patient Participation Group

The surgery is running its annual survey of your views. We want to know what our patients think of the services we provide. Please take a few minutes to complete our questionnaire. You can also add ideas you may have, big or small, for improving services. We will publish a summary of our plans to address the suggestions made by patients and discuss them further with our patient forum.  

Please click on this link to complete the survey.  Patient Participation Survey

Accessing your medical record

Patient Access

From January 1st 2015 it has been possible for you to register for access to your medical records for medication, immunisations and allergies as well as to request repeat prescriptions and book and cancel appointments.

Patients wishing to have access to their records will need to complete a form and return it in person to reception along with a photo ID such as a driving licence or passport. At present this service is not available to patients under 18 because of computer software issues. As soon as these are rectified the service will be expanded to all patients.

This improved access is the next step towards opening up access to your record and the plan is that over time you will be able to access all areas of your medical file such as results, letter and consultation records. These record will be "read only"

Not quite the New Year

Save the Children
Thank you for supporting our efforts to raise money for Save the Children. With your help we have raised £46.20 and a cheque has been sent off.

Access to your medical records
The new year will see the start of electronic access to medical records. Those of you wishing to have online access to your medical records will need to register at reception in person and with a photo ID to have this activated. You will then be issued with a pin number and password. It is your responsibility to look after and protect your own login details. We will not be providing access to patients under the age of 16 until we have safeguards in place to ensure their confidentiality.

At present registration will only allow access to medication, allergies and immunisations but in time greater access will be possible. Full access to care records is planned for 2018.  Patients will be able to record their own comments alongside the medical notes.

Passport Photos 
Did you know that GPs can no longer sign passport forms for our patients? The law changed this year and GPs are no longer on the approved list of counter signatories. A GP may not sign in our professional capacity. Your optician, pharmacist, social worker, solicitor, teacher may sign for you and a full list is available from countersigning-passport-applications

2015

May your world be filled with warmth, 

joy and good cheer…
Wishing you a Happy New Year!
from all at Wickham Park Surgery

The Doctors, Nurses and Staff

at Wickham Park Surgery

wish all our patients a peaceful

and joyful Christmas

and a happy and healthy New Year. 

December Post

Wear your Woolies

Members of the practice team will be wearing their Christmas jumpers to work on 10th and 12th December in support of Save the Children. Please help us to raise some money for this valuable cause

1. Pay in online.
2. Text JUMPER to 70050 to donate £2*.
* You'll be billed £2 plus standard rate text message. They receive 100% of your donation. By sending this text you agree that they may contact you to tell you about their work and how you can help. They will always give you the chance to opt out of further communications. If you would rather not receive such information, please email them at supporter.care@savethechildren.org.uk or phone or include NO INFO in your text message.

Friends and Family Test.
From 1 December 2014 it is a contractual requirement that all GP practices undertake the NHS Friends and Family test. NHS England say this test is a feedback tool supporting "the principle that people who use NHS services should have the opportunity to provide feedback on their experience that can be used to improve services."

The Friends and Family Test is a continuous feedback tool; patients responses must be anonymous; feedback can be given after each experience of the service if patients wish; the results should be transparently available to the public and to patients. Information on the responses collected is to be submitted to NHS England on a monthly basis and these results will be published.
Please look out for paper feedback forms within the surgery or use the link on the practice website or the practice blog poll (to the right of this column).

Booking in when you arrive
The surgery has a new touch screen for booking in for your appointment when you arrive at the surgery. It is placed just around the corner on the right of the reception window. It will also allow you to update your personal information if you wish and will offer patient specific reminders about services you may be due for such as flu jabs, prescription reviews etc.

News & Views

Thank you
I was very sorry not to be able to take part in our annual relocation to West Wickham and Shirley Baptist Church for the flu clinic this year. I really missed the opportunity to meet with you all outside of the surgery. Unfortunately commitments to the medical students and the absence of other doctors on leave meant I had to stay put behind my desk.

I would like to say a massive thank you to all of you who bought Christmas cards or contributed money towards my chosen charity " Freedom from Torture”. You raised the huge sum of £230 over the two days which has been paid on to the charity this weekend. It is an organisation I feel very strongly about and the money you have contributed will help it to continue its valuable work rebuilding the lives of those physically and psychologically damaged by torture. Freedom from Torture remains the only organisation in the UK dedicated solely to the treatment and rehabilitation of survivors of torture.

Friends and Family Test.From 1 December 2014 it is a contractual requirement that all GP practices undertake the NHS Friends and Family test. NHS England say this test is a feedback tool supporting "the principle that people who use NHS services should have the opportunity to provide feedback on their experience that can be used to improve services."

The Friends and Family question asks if people would recommend the service they have used and offers a range of responses. It will be combined with a secondary question. The idea is that practices will use the generated feedback to "celebrate successes and support staff to make improvements to services."

The Friends and Family Test is a continuous feedback tool; patients responses must be anonymous; feedback can be given after each experience of the service if patients wish; the results should be transparently available to the public and to patients. Information on the responses collected is to be submitted to NHS England on a monthly basis and these results will be published.

Please look out for paper feedback forms within the surgery or use the link on the practice website. The question will be phrased as follows:

"We would like you to think about your recent experiences of our service. How likely are you to recommend our GP practice to friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment?"
The responses are extremely likely; likely; neither likely nor unlikely; extremely unlikely or don't know.

Dementia Screening Payment.This practice will not be signing up to the government’s proposed scheme to pay £55 per patient for each additional dementia diagnosis we make over the next six months. Like many GPs we believe this scheme is best boycotted as it lacks a sound ethical basis. We will continue to assess, investigate and refer patients based on their individual clinical needs.