Sedation For An MRI

We do not prescribe diazepam for patients having MRI scans or other investigative procedures. We have a duty of care to provide safe, consistent, and appropriate care for our patients.  We have outlined our reasons for this below: 

•  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.
• GPs are not regularly involved, skilled, trained or appraised in sedation skills.
• 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.
• 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 in the monitoring of sedated patients:  https://www.rcr.ac.uk/media/ch2olbds/rcr-publications_sedation-analgesia-and-anaesthesia-in-the-radiology-department-second-edition_june-2018.pdf

You may wish to discuss the next steps with your radiologist or consultant.