| Do you need travel vaccinations? |
Your general health.
Where you are travelling to.
Where you will be staying.
How long you will be staying.
What you will be doing throughout your trip.
Lots of useful travel health information is available online from the Fit for Travel website www.fitfortravel.nhs.uk provided by NHS (Scotland).
It is important that you read through the information available online first before contacting NHS Ayrshire & Arran’s Travel Health Service.
Once you have read through the information on the Fit for Travel website you may require an assessment, further advice and vaccinations before you travel.
NHS Ayrshire & Arran’s Travel Health Service
In Ayrshire and Arran, the following services are available if you require travel advice, vaccinations or antimalarial/trip specific medications:
Advice by email/telephone
By outpatient appointment (providing vaccines available free through the NHS)
By referral to specialist travel health service
Through participating community pharmacies providing private service, including antimalarial medication and travel vaccines not provided free by NHS
The first step is for a full travel risk assessment to be carried out. Please contact NHS Ayrshire & Arran’s Travel Health Service by emailing [email protected] for further information. You will then receive a travel risk assessment form to complete and return. A member of the Travel Health Service will then contact you to advise what your next steps are.
What travel vaccines are provided for free by the NHS?
The following travel vaccines continue to be available free on the NHS to citizens living in Scotland for the purpose of travel:
Cholera
Hepatitis A
Diptheria, Polio, tetanus (administered as a combined vaccine)
Typhoid
The above vaccines are free as they protect against diseases that are considered to present the greatest risk to public health if they were to be brought into the country.
Masta
Masta offer travel health consultations, vaccinations (including yellow fever at MASTA nurse lead clinics and selected community pharmacies), antimalarials and travel related retail items. MASTA (Medical Advisory Service for Travellers Abroad), was established over 30 years ago and we now operate one of the largest network of private travel clinics in the UK.
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 within Europe should be advised to carry a European Health Insurance Card, known as an EHIC.
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.