The Practice no longer provides Travel Advice or Travel Immunisations
- Patients can access information on what vaccinations are required, together with malarial and safe travel advice at Home – Fit for Travel.
- Four Travel Vaccines are available on the NHS (Typhoid, Hepatitis A, DPT and Cholera) at no direct cost to the patient.
Please remember to allow at least 6-8 weeks to arrange your vaccination appointment before departure. If you are pregnant or have a child travelling under the age of 2 years you should seek advice and all vaccinations required from your journey from the travel clinic.
To make an appointment for a travel health risk assessment in Scotland, contact the NHS health board where you live.
Travel health and vaccinations
If you’re planning to travel outside the UK, your travel health needs will depend on your individual situation. This includes:
- your destination
- how long you’ll stay
- what you’ll be doing
- your general health
Regular repeat prescriptions
Under NHS legislation the NHS ceases to have responsibility for people when they leave the UK. However, if you are going to be travelling abroad and need medication for a stable pre-existing health condition, your GP may prescribe you with up to 3 months medication if they deem this medically appropriate. When determining the appropriate prescription for you, your GP needs to take into account how long you need to continue your medication for and how often your treatment needs to be reviewed, so you may be prescribed with less than the 3 months supply.
If you are going to be abroad for longer than 3 months, you will need to make arrangements to obtain a supply of medication at your destination. You can do this by either registering with a doctor in the country you are visiting (they may charge for the medication), or buying the medication from a pharmacist while you are away.
Patients sometimes request a prescription for medication they think they may need when abroad, for example in case they get diarrhoea, a reaction to mosquito bites, or if their period might be due. Depending on the circumstances of the request, a GP may or may not agree to prescribe medication in these situations. If the GP does agree to prescribe medication, this will always be deemed a private prescription, and the medication will have to be paid for at the pharmacy.
People travelling to Europe should be advised to apply for a Global Health Insurance Card.
Planning on having private treatment/surgery in the UK or abroad?
Please be aware that the whole episode of the treatment should be provided by the private provider, i.e. blood tests and other tests, suture removal, dressing changes, routine wound check, prescribing during your episode of private treatment, etc., and the Practice should not be involved in any aspects of this episode of treatment, with the exception of emergency care relating to the treatment.
It is also the private providers responsibility to issue a Fit Note covering the entire anticipated period off work, but if any longer time off is then required when you are no longer under the care of the provider then this would be the practice responsibility.