Arranging your Travel appointment
Our practice nurses provide a foreign travel advice service:
- At around a minimum of 8-10 weeks prior to your trip please complete and submit a travel questionnaire (link below).
- Once you have submitted the questionnaire, contact the practice to make an appointment .
Prior to travelling please allow as much time as possible to arrange your appointment for the Travel Clinic (preferably at least 8 -10 weeks or more), which will be with the Practice Nurse. The Nurse will require to know which countries, and areas within countries, that you are visiting to determine what vaccinations are required.
It is important to make this initial appointment as early as possible, as a second appointment will be required with the Practice Nurse to actually receive the vaccinations.These vaccines have to be ordered as they are not a stock vaccine. Your second appointment needs to be at least 2 weeks before you travel to allow the vaccines to work.
Vaccines
Some travel vaccines are ordered on a private prescription and these incur a charge over and above the normal prescription charge.This is because not all travel vaccinations are included in the services provided by the NHS.
Please note only the undernoted vaccines are available on NHS Prescriptions:-
- Hepatitis A
- Typhoid
- Diphtheria
- Tetanus
- Polio
Travel Form
Complete the online Travel form and send this to us (this must be submitted at least 8-10 weeks prior to travel). Please note the nurse will need your completed form before you attend the appointment.
There is currently a national shortage of Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B vaccines and therefore it may be necessary to direct our patients to a Travel Clinic to have these.
Fear of Flying
Patients come to us, asking us to prescribe diazepam for fear of flying. There are a number of very good reasons why prescribing this drug is not recommended.
Diazepam is a sedative, which means it makes you sleepy and more relaxed. If there is an emergency during the flight it may impair your ability to concentrate, follow instructions and react to the situation. This could have serious safety consequences for you and those around you.
Sedative drugs can make you fall asleep, however when you do sleep it is an unnatural non-REM sleep. This means you won’t move around as much as during natural sleep. This can cause you to be at increased risk of developing a blood clot (DVT) in the leg or even the lung. Blood clots are very dangerous and can even prove fatal. This risk is even greater if your flight is greater than 4 hours.
Whilst most people find benzodiazepines like diazepam sedating, a small number have paradoxical agitation and increased aggression. They can also cause disinhibition and lead you to behave in a way that you would not normally. This could impact on your safety as well as that of other passengers and could also get you into trouble with the law.
According to the prescribing guidelines doctors follow (BNF) Benzodiazepines are contraindicated (not allowed) in treating phobia. Your doctor would be taking a significant legal risk by prescribing against these guidelines. They are only licensed short term for a crisis in generalised anxiety. If this is the case, you should be getting proper care and support for your mental health and not going on a flight.
Diazepam and similar drugs are illegal in a number of countries.They may be confiscated, or you may find yourself in trouble with the police.
Diazepam stays in your system for quite a while. If your job requires you to submit to random drug testing, you may fail this having taken diazepam.
We appreciate that fear of flying is very real and very frightening. A much better approach is to tackle this properly with a Fear of Flying course run by the airlines. We have listed a number of these below.
Advice on Medicines and Vaccines for Patients Travelling Outside the UK
Under NHS legislation, the NHS ceases to have responsibility for people when they leave the UK. GP’s are not required to provide prescriptions for the treatment of a condition that may arise while the patient is abroad.
For example;
- Sun cream/lotions
- Pain relief
- AntidiarrhoealsTravel sickness medicines
For Prescription Only Medicines (POM), patients may be offered and charged for a private prescription e.g. Ciprofloxacin for traveller’s diarrhoea. The GMS contract allows items for travel to be prescribed by GPs for patients on their NHS list.
Drugs for malaria prophylaxis are not prescribed on the NHS
- Patients should be advised to purchase where possible over the counter medications
- For prescription only medicines (eg. Doxycycline, Lariam®, Malarone® and Maloprim®), GPs may charge for and issue a private prescription.
All other travel vaccinations are not available on the NHS and must therefore must be offered to patients via a private prescription;
- Meningitis ACWY
- Tick Borne Encephalitis
- Japanese Encephalitis
- Rabies
- Yellow Fever Vaccine
Healthy Travel Leaflet
You may find the following leaflet helpful when making your travel arrangements.
Please download and print our useful guide below about Mosquito advice.
Hepatitis immunisation
Immunisation against infectious Hepatitis (Hepatitis A) is available free of charge on the NHS in connection with travel abroad. However Hepatitis B is not routinely available free of charge and therefore you may be charged for this vaccination when requested in connection with travel abroad.
Private Travel Clinics
If you are unable to wait for our next available travel advice appointment, as advised by the reception staff, then you can attend any Private Travel Clinic—charges will apply at these clinics.
Excess quantities of regular repeat prescriptions
Under NHS legislation, the NHS ceases to have responsibility for people when they leave the United Kingdom. However, to ensure good patient care the following guidance is offered. People travelling to Europe should be advised to apply for a Global Health Insurance Card.
Medication required for a pre-existing condition should be provided in sufficient quantity to cover the journey and to allow the patient to obtain medical attention abroad. If the patient is returning within the timescale of their usual prescription, then this should be issued (the maximum duration of a prescription is recommended by the Care Trust to be two months, although it is recognised that prescription quantities are sometimes greater than this). Patients are entitled to carry prescribed medicines, even if originally classed as controlled drugs, for example, morphine sulphate tablets.
For longer visits abroad, the patient should be advised to register with a local doctor for continuing medication (this may need to be paid for by the patient).
General practitioners are not responsible for prescriptions of items required for conditions which may arise while travelling, for example travel sickness or diarrhoea. Patients should be advised to purchase these items from community pharmacies prior to travel.
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.