Travel Insurance - too ill to travel but....

Cc27

I've been recently ill and I should be travelling on holiday tomorrow night but I'm too unwell to do so.

I obviously want to claim on my travel insurance but I couldn't get a doctors appointment before my departure date and I believe this is a requirement of the policy.

Not getting a doctors appointment for over a week, sometimes longer, is obviously common now so where do I and others stand in this instance.

Is there anyway to get around this?

Wammer

Was it not possible to get an appointment with any doctor as there is normally a Duty Doctor for same day appointments?

You should try again tomorrow as soon as the surgery opens.

Is this a new illness or something pre-existing?

ferf1223

is there no walk-in clinic near you (I live in London so I may be 'spoiled' in this respect when it takes 3 weeks to get an appointment with my GP I do have the option of going to walk-in clinic instead if I need to)?

Cc27

This is a recent illness i.e. it was not present when the travel insurance was taken out.

Unfortunately I don't live in London and I don't believe there are any walk in clinics anywhere near where I live.

ferf1223

maybe check your A&E...some have walk-in centres as well?

Sorry you are unwell and hope that it all works itself out.

PeacefulWaters

Cc27 wrote: »

Unfortunately I don't live in London and I don't believe there are any walk in clinics anywhere near where I live.

Have you tried finding out?

http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/AboutNHSservices/Emergencyandurgentcareservices/pages/Walk-incentresSummary.aspx

Voyager2002

Cc27 wrote: »

I've been recently ill and I should be travelling on holiday tomorrow night but I'm too unwell to do so.

I obviously want to claim on my travel insurance but I couldn't get a doctors appointment before my departure date and I believe this is a requirement of the policy.

Not getting a doctors appointment for over a week, sometimes longer, is obviously common now so where do I and others stand in this instance.

Is there anyway to get around this?

Try calling your insurer... You should also contact your holiday provider, since the cost for changing the date of travel may be less than that of cancellation.

lea2012

The thing is, even if you do see your doctor or any doctor today or tomorrow, they may still say that you are fit enough to travel and therefore you won't be able to claim on your travel insurance.

I presume that this is quite a serious illness and not just a cough or cold that is stopping you from travelling, but do you think your doctor would agree with you and say you were unfit to travel?

I would suggest calling your GP again and explaining why you need to see them asap. If you're illness is bad enough to prevent you from travelling then they should be able to give you an emergency same day appointment.

Failing that, I believe that all NHS GP's now need to provide an 'out of hours service'. That doesn't mean that your specific GP will offer one, but if they don't then there will be an area out of hours team who will be able to assist you. Take a look here http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/AboutNHSservices/doctors/Pages/out-of-hours-services.aspx or for non medical emergencies call 111 and they will be able to assist you.

Flugelhorn

there are 2 points here -
1), is the OP ill enough that he needs to see the doctor anyway about the ilness? in which case most surgeries will at least do phone triage / consultation and appointment if appropriate
2) Does the OP need to see the doctor just to record the fact that they are ill and can't travel?.... if so tends to not be high priority for surgeries when sorting out appointments.

If it (1) then phone the surgery and speak to the duty doctor, if it is (2) not sure what to suggest - I do end up seeing some people in Out of Hours who really just need the fact that they are ill recorded in the notes, tricky state that are unfit to fly (and very rarely advised people not to) as the criteria for that are highly defined.

InsideInsurance

They can be a pain to get but never heard of a GP surgery that doesnt have same day appointments for emergencies. Just need to check what time their phones open at and be prepared to keep hitting redial as they tend to get overwhelmed.

Occasionally they will tell you to just come in and wait (or go to A&E if its that much of an emergency) but never had to wait more than 36 hours for such an appointment. Now, a routine appointment and you are talking 2 weeks or more to get one with your doc of choice