Travel Advice and Services

Accessing Healthcare While You’re Away

If you need to access healthcare while you are away from home, you should contact local service providers, your GP may have difficulty providing usual services when you are away from the local area.

Information on how to access NHS support while on holiday within the UK is available at: How can I see a GP if I’m away from home? – NHS (www.nhs.uk)
For information on accessing healthcare on holiday outside of the UK please visit: Healthcare abroad – NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Medication and Prescription Requests

If you are going to run out of medication during your holiday, please ensure you contact the practice prior to travel. Standard medication requests can take up to 48 (working) hours to be processed and if you require a review this may further extend the time to prescribe your medication.

If you require quantities of medication that differ to what you are normally prescribed because you are going on a long trip, or you require alternative support or medication, please ensure you contact the practice at least 6 weeks prior to travel to book a routine appointment. The usual maximum supply is 3 months and for some types of medication, such as controlled drugs, the maximum supply is 1 months’ worth. Medication requested solely for travel may be provided as a private prescription

Please note we are unable to offer urgent or same day appointments for medication or prescription requests for travel purposes.

Taking Medication Abroad

The practice is not able to advise on taking medication abroad as international regulations vary.

Please contact your travel agent or the embassy for the country you’re going to before you travel to check. Information on this is available at: NHS – Can I take my medicine abroad?

NHS Travel Vaccinations

The practice is able to offer the following travel vaccines which are available for free on the NHS, by prior appointment only:

Polio (given as a combined diphtheria/tetanus/polio jab)
Typhoid
Hepatitis A
Cholera

Please contact the surgery as early as possible should you require any of these vaccines.

Availability for travel vaccination appointments is limited and so if we do not have sufficient notice and appointments are fully booked, you may need to contact a private travel service instead.

We require a minimum 8 weeks’ notice in order to ensure we are able to offer you an appointment in time, and have the appropriate vaccinations in stock.

Prior to contacting reception for an appointment, please check online that you do require vaccinations for your chosen destination. Information on this is available here:
NHS – Fit For Travel and NaTHNaC – Country List (travelhealthpro.org.uk)

Private Travel Vaccinations

The practice does not offer the following non-NHS travel vaccines.

Hepatitis B
Japanese encephalitis
Meningitis
Rabies
Tick-borne encephalitis
Tuberculosis
Yellow fever (available from designated centres only)

These are available through private travel clinics and some pharmacies and incur a charge.

Requests for Fitness to Travel certificates

Unfortunately more and more organisations are sending people to their doctors in order to obtain ‘a note’ to certify that they are fit and well for many and various activities, including in relation to travel and activities abroad.

This often represents an attempt to absolve organisations and individuals from all responsibility for any medical problem that might subsequently arise.

As well as being time consuming and usually unnecessary, such certificates may even imply some sort of liability on our part.

We have therefore decided as a practice, in line with many other doctors, not to sign such pieces of paper unless there is a very good reason to do so, which will be at the discretion of the doctor and will involve a fee.

If any of our patients require a formal medical examination prior to an activity, on behalf of a third party, then we may provide this service, by arrangement, and it will be charged on a private basis.