MSE Poll: Do you risk going on holiday without travel insurance?

Kate876

Blood Donors Appointment has created an impossible predicament with regard my travel insurance. PLEASE be aware before you choose to donate!  

I attended my 60th Donation on the 22nd May and was declined due to a (common) haemoglobin level  of 113. I believe the ‘base’ is around 120 so not 70 or 80 but 113.   I was sent home with a leaflet on Iron and advised I could get a Blood Test from my GP in 3 months or wait a year and do nothing.  I am not at all ‘high risk’. I’m vegetarian (common cause of low iron), under age of 60 (when NICE guidelines ‘kick in’ and had a colostomy last year after completely unrelated surgery. So all fine. IMPORTANT- like thousands of blood donors I came away ‘technically’ aware of an ‘undiagnosed  health condition’ but totally oblivious to it. The GP ordered a blood test. urine test and stool test ‘just to be on the safe side, belt and braces’ to exclude internal bleeding. I honestly thought nothing of it and 4 days later booked a holiday to Norway leaving in 5 weeks. 

I called my ‘rolling’ holiday insurance with Nationwide as I do once a year and have discovered I have apparently ‘booked a holiday knowing I am under investigation with an undiagnosed condition’. 

Long story short - I am not insured.  No one will insure me and it is too late to cancel my holiday. All because I booked into Blood Donors. There are no quick fixes. Everything takes weeks. I have tried every avenue and the only advice I can give is to not give blood if you are planning anything within 3 months of that donation. The minute you are ‘aware’ of a lower haemoglobin count, you are responsible for declaring it. The result sits on the NHS Blood Bank. The blood bank routinely recommend a trip to the doctors which can take 5 weeks plus another 5 for a blood test etc etc. this issue is HUGE. No one at the Blood Bank can help but everyone I have spoken to has said the same thing - do NOT take the risk of donating if you are going on holiday/might need to book a last minute holiday or flight. And if you are OVER 60 you will most likely AUTOMATICALLY be put forward for all this tests with your GP. Believe me, no one will insure you. I have spent the past week trying to sort this out. The NHS does not ‘work’ when it comes to ‘popping in for a blood test’ etc…I wish I could make more people aware of this as everyone who walks into the Blood Donor Centres risks invalidating their Travel Insurance. But no one ever tells you that. 

Kate876

Interestingly, the Ombudsmen states that if a test is deemed minor or routine it doesn’t need to be declared. But I cannot see where a stool test fits or anything else plus the insurance companies do not have a ‘box’ Which fits the criteria.  By the time a complaint got through to the ombudsmen many people will have run out of time to sort it out prior to their holiday. I’m currently trying to get clarity on this from the Blood Bank bit the whole situation around blood, GPS recommendations, NICE guidelines, insurance companies and the ombudsmen so not seem to ‘marry uo’ as far as I can tell. I am going to explore this issue and see what I can find out. 

DigSunPap

Nope, definitely not. Its not worth the risk. I flew to Dubai once and left my hand luggage on the connecting flight to Romania (completely idiotic I know). It was too late to go back to and get it as I had to get on my connecting flight and I had no travel insurance so it was the last I saw of that bag!