Do you need vaccinations?
When you travel abroad, you may need vaccinations to protect yourself from diseases and infections which pose a threat in other parts of the world. It is therefore important to find out in good time before you travel whether you will need additional vaccinations for the country you are visiting.
Here at St Mary’s Surgery we offer a comprehensive travel health advice and immunisation service. We can assess the health risks of your travel plans and recommend the appropriate vaccinations.
As some vaccinations take time to reach effective levels of protection or may involve the completion of a carefully spaced course of doses, it is important that you allow sufficient time for this before your travel – at least three months – if possible.
Our normal travel clinic process is:
- Patients to complete and submit a travel risk assessment form (one per person travelling) via Ask My GP
- A telephone consultation with a travel clinic nurse to discuss your travel requirements in more detail to be arranged. This provides an opportunity to fully discuss your travel plans and for our nurses to ensure you have the right vaccine information for the places you are visiting.
- Face to face vaccination appointment booked or vaccine course to be commenced.
Should you have a late holiday booking, having the appropriate vaccinations and advice will still give you some important protection. Please note that if your trip is less than four weeks away, the surgery will NOT be able to see you for your vaccinations. We ask that you seek advice from an external travel clinic. We can offer a printout of the vaccinations on your patient record to help with this, if you wish.
St Mary’s surgery is a registered yellow fever centre and we welcome patients from surgeries unable to provide this service. (Please note patients from other surgeries are not able to have their other vaccinations here.)
Travel vaccination fees
In addition to our travel clinic consultation, we are able to offer some routine travel vaccinations FREE of charge through the NHS.
These include:
- Hepatitis A
- Typhoid
- Cholera
- Tetanus / diphtheria / polio-combined.
Other vaccinations are NOT covered by the NHS and are considered as private treatments that incur a cost. These include Yellow Fever and Hepatitis B. Malaria prevention treatment also requires a private prescription.
Where a course of vaccinations is required and where there is a charge, your travel nurse will advise you when and where to pay.
View our travel immunisation fees table.
Your next steps
- First, check what vaccinations you might need for the countries you are visiting. The links below will help you.
You can also find more general information about travel vaccines here.
2. Complete a travel risk assessment form via Ask My GP (available 24/7) for each person travelling. Please allow at least ten working days for our travel clinic nurses to review your forms before they contact you to arrange your telephone consultation.
During your telephone consultation, our travel clinic nurse will assess the health risks of your travel plans and advise you what vaccinations, if any, are needed for you and your family. Please note: some vaccinations may require a course of injections, so follow-up appointments may be needed.
It might be helpful if you’ve got details of your previous travel immunisations to hand, especially if you had them at another location and they aren’t on your patient record.
3. It is important to find out about any specific restrictions or requirements for the country you are planning to visit before you book. FCO advice on country entry requirements is regularly updated. The government has also provided a useful step-by-step planning list for those wishing to holiday abroad.
Travelling with medicines
Advice for people who need to take medicines with them when travelling abroad is here.
Useful guidance for specific disease information:
Use gov.uk for specific country travel advice.
If you become ill with a minor ailment when travelling abroad, please visit a local pharmacy. More here.
Global Health Insurance Cards
A UK Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC) gives you the right to access state-provided healthcare during a temporary stay in the European Union at a reduced cost or sometimes for free.
If you have a UK European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) it will be valid until the expiry date on the card. Once it expires, you’ll need to apply for a GHIC to replace it.
Please note: GHIC and EHIC do not replace travel insurance.
Updated: 09.08.22