Doctor and overseas vaccinations

DullGreyGuy

Its always been a bit dependent on your relationship with your GP practice, when we went to a holiday with friends our GP surgery did ours for free when I spoke to them, one of our friends was at the same practice and was told they could do them for a fee and the other friend was at another and was just told they dont do them.

Pollycat

Flugelhorn said:

whoever gives the travel vaccs needs access to up to date database advising which meds are needed - I haven't been in practice for a while but this used to be a subscription database. Also used to take quite some time to determine what was needed and a course planned  with some people then deciding that they really didn't want to pay for the more expensive ones offered.
Possible that more practices are now advising people to go to clinics where the treatments can be planned and advised - the practice will probably still give the basic stuff DTP, hep, typhoid, cholera if asked

I use these 2 websites:

• Travel Health Pro
• NHS Fit for Travel

So does my practice nurse.
I keep a record of all vaccinations we have had and how long they are active for so when we visit the surgery after handing in our paper form details, we can discuss what is needed.
Once, they insisted we needed typhoid but I had the exact date that we'd had the vaccination so they accepted they were wrong.

There are some vaccinations that are recommended, it depends where you are staying.
For example, Jap Encephalitis is recommended for trips to Indonesia - if you are staying in rural areas or for longer than 1 month.
I'm happy to have vaccinations that I need but not for those that I don't, so after a discussion we agreed not to have it.

sheramber

eskbanker said:

Ayr_Rage said:

@eskbanker, which country is that for?

Scotland is certainly different.

"Your GP is no longer your point of contact for a travel health risk assessment, including travel vaccines"

https://www.nhsinform.scot/healthy-living/travel-health/travel-health-advice-and-travel-vaccinations/

It was copied from the .UK page linked in the previous post, and all references within that are to 'UK' rather than highlighting variances between any of the constituent nations.

NHS scotland is separate to the NHS.

It is a devolved matter.

eskbanker

sheramber said:

eskbanker said:

Ayr_Rage said:

@eskbanker, which country is that for?

Scotland is certainly different.

"Your GP is no longer your point of contact for a travel health risk assessment, including travel vaccines"

https://www.nhsinform.scot/healthy-living/travel-health/travel-health-advice-and-travel-vaccinations/

It was copied from the .UK page linked in the previous post, and all references within that are to 'UK' rather than highlighting variances between any of the constituent nations.

NHS scotland is separate to the NHS.

It is a devolved matter.

Yes, well aware that it's devolved, so NHS Scotland is part of the NHS but with similar autonomy to the other nations, but the main purpose of the post was to highlight which vaccinations should be provided free by the NHS, even if the article's use of 'UK' wasn't particularly accurate when failing to recognise variances in delivery.

XzavierWalnut

Telephoned the GP surgery again for clarification and quoted what was on the Care Quality Commission website.
Was told that they did do holiday vaccinations but did not have the capacity to provide them currently.
I now have an appointment with a nurse to discuss if I need any vaccinations or not.

hugheskevi

I've traveled extensively over the last 20 years to a lot of remote countries and had a lot of vaccinations in that time.

My experience with the NHS and several different surgeries over that time is that it has got progressively worse, to the point that it isn't worth bothering with now. Private travel clinics are inexpensive and give a far better experience.

I once spent some time in one of the last polio strongholds in Nigeria after my polio innoculation had expired, due to an NHS doctor telling me an incorrect duration for how long the vaccine would be effective.

I've had to involve the Care Quality Commission and my MP before an NHS doctor would give me vaccinations that should be provided under the NHS at another surgery.

The NHS will insist on telling you what they think you need to have, even when you have carefully researched it all yourself. All they are doing is reading a list from a book/database and likely to tell you that they would recommend you have all of them without consideration of individual circumstances. This is infuriating when you are visiting a dozen or more countries at a time as it takes forever for a nurse to go through country by country and make a list, and then insist on explaining to you what you already know. In comparison, a private clinic will just give you what you ask for without any undue delay (they will also tell you what they think you should consider having, if you want that).

Don't trust the NHS on malaria either, I once had a long argument with a nurse who was insisting doxycycline was not effective where I was going. She ended up calling a specialist malaria helpline before believing she was not correct. Nowadays you can use online pharmacies to get what you want, which is so much better than it used to be. Back before online pharmacies I once couldn't even get a week's supply of doxycycline without getting an emergency GP appointment at a local surgery for a prescription when I was staying with family far away from my regular GP - on that occasion, I just decided to travel without it and get supplies on arrival (most medication is available over the counter in almost every non-Western country so it can be much easier to buy on arrival).

My only positive experiences have been a GP being willing to prescribe a couple of broad-spectrum antibiotics for a med-kit as I was going to some extremely remote areas for a long time. Even that was difficult for the GP, as it was hard to justify prescribing antibiotics when the patient was not sick. The other experience is that GPs were surprisingly willing to prescribe malaria tablets for long periods - although nowadays malaria tablets are very cheap from online pharmacies.

I'd suggest doing your own research about what you need, then booking whatever you want at a private clinic. Dealing with the NHS is just painful and not worth the effort anymore. Note that although quite a few vaccinations will be recommended for most countries, give careful thought to what you will need - if you are going to spend 2 weeks in a luxury hotel your needs are very different to someone who is going on a volunteering trip into rural areas to live closely with locals and work with livestock every day.

Depending on where you live, there are likely to be several travel clinics available in the nearest city. Failing that, I've always found Superdrug to be a reasonable choice.