Travel Advice and Vaccinations

Make sure you are able to view your GP electronic health record and know your passwords. (Ask the receptionist if you need help to do this). You can also ask for somebody else to do this on your behalf if you are not IT savvy. This means if you fall ill whilst abroad, you can show your records to those caring for you and they can instantly see your past medical history, results of tests and letters from any hospitals or other clinics you have visited.
Please check what travel vaccinations you need before travelling. Ideally, travel vaccinations, should be given 6 weeks before you travel. Please see below for further information on travel vaccinations.
Please look back at your consultations with the doctor or nurse to see if you are doing everything you can to help improve your health as best as possible. If you are unsure about anything then please ask! Please book an appointment with your doctor or nurse before you travel abroad if you have a long term condition and want specific advice on what you can do to improve things so that you can enjoy your holiday and stay safe.
Please ensure you take adequate medication for your holiday including simple painkillers and treatments for common ailments. Speak to your pharmacist who may be able to advise you depending on where you plan to travel. 
Ensure you order any repeat prescriptions so you have enough for whilst you are abroad and do not run out. (Please note we can only prescribe up to 3 months of medications at the discretion of the doctor due to safety reasons). Please order medications a week before you plan to fly to ensure your request is dealt with in a timely fashion and make clear when you plan to travel and how long for. 
You can order repeat prescriptions online whilst you are abroad so that the prescriptions are ready to collect when you return to the UK. Please order 3 working days before returning to the UK.
We do not recommend you contacting the GP surgery for medical advice whilst you are abroad as we are not insured to provide safe advice when you are not in the UK. Please contact a local medical establishment for advice as they will know local diseases and how best to manage them with the local resources available, what antibiotics to prescribe, what painkillers etc. If you do get treatment whilst abroad then please bring any paperwork of the encounter and ideally have it translated into English if in a foreign language and hand it into the surgery so that we can add this to your electronic health record. 

Information taken from the National Travel Health Network and centre including info about Yellow Fever

Free NHS Travel Vaccines

The practice only administers the free NHS Vaccinations. These include Diphtheria, Polio and Tetanus, Hepatitis A, Typhoid and Cholera.

Ideally, these must be given 6 weeks before you travel.

Patients are required to submit our Travel Vaccine Questionnaire, ideally 8 weeks before travel.

Once we receive your questionnaire, a Practice Nurse will review what vaccinations you need, order your vaccines and a member of our team will contact you to book your travel vaccine appointment.

Please click below for our Travel Vaccination Questionnaire

Which Travel Vaccines will I have to pay for ?

Patients will have to pay for travel vaccinations against the diseases listed below. Many local pharmacies offer these vaccines.

• hepatitis B
• Japanese encephalitis
• meningitis
• rabies
• tick-borne encephalitis
• tuberculosis (TB)
• yellow fever

Yellow fever vaccines are only available from designated centres.

The cost of travel vaccines that are not available on the NHS will vary, depending on the vaccine and number of doses you need.

It’s worth considering this when budgeting for your trip.

Other things to consider

There are other things to consider when planning your travel vaccinations, including:

• your age and health – you may be more vulnerable to infection than others; some vaccines cannot be given to people with certain medical conditions
• working as an aid worker – you may come into contact with more diseases in a refugee camp or helping after a natural disaster
• working in a medical setting – a doctor, nurse or another healthcare worker may require additional vaccinations
• contact with animals – you may be more at risk of getting diseases spread by animals, such as rabies

If you’re only travelling to countries in northern and central Europe, North America or Australia, you’re unlikely to need any vaccinations.

But it’s important to check that you’re up-to-date with routine vaccinations available on the NHS.

Pregnancy and breastfeeding

Speak to a GP before having any vaccinations if:

• you’re pregnant
• you think you might be pregnant
• you’re breastfeeding

In many cases, it’s unlikely a vaccine given while you’re pregnant or breastfeeding will cause problems for the baby.

But the GP will be able to give you further advice about this.

People with immune deficiencies

For some people travelling overseas, vaccination against certain diseases may not be advised.

This may be the case if:

• you have a condition that affects your body’s immune system, such as HIV or AIDS
• you’re receiving treatment that affects your immune system, such as chemotherapy
• you have recently had a bone marrow or organ transplant

A GP can give you further advice about this.

Non-travel vaccines

As well as getting any travel vaccinations you need, it’s also a good opportunity to make sure your other vaccinations are up-to-date and have booster vaccines if necessary.

Although many routine NHS vaccinations are given during childhood, you can have some of them (such as the MMR vaccine) as an adult if you missed getting vaccinated as a child.

There are also some extra NHS vaccinations for people at higher risk of certain illnesses, such as the flu vaccine, the hepatitis B vaccine and the BCG vaccine for tuberculosis (TB).

Your GP can advise you about any NHS vaccinations you might need.

Find out about NHS vaccinations and when to have them

Am I Fit To Fly? by the Civil Aviation Authority. Includes great FAQs for patients and specific advice for patients with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, haematological disorders, pregnancy, psychiatric conditions, respiratory disease and surgical conditions too. 

How can I delay my period for my holiday?

You can get pills to delay your period by going online to Boots, Lloyds Pharmacy, Superdrug and others. Please note this is only available online – you cannot walk into a store to get these. Please make sure you go to a reputable online pharmacy that is regulated by the Care Quality Commission.

We no longer prescribe pills for delaying periods as you can buy them safely online.

In Britain an estimated nine million people suffer anxiety about flying. There is no single personality type, prone to fear of flying it may develop following a bad experience such as a rough flight, or after a news report of a high jack or a crash. Panic attacks are common, the sensation is often so frightening that the sufferer may refuse to fly in the future. Fear of flying is often underpinned by a fear of losing control but fear of turbulence, terrorism, feeling trapped, claustrophobia or fear of heights can all be contributing or causative factors.

Following an extensive review of the safety of prescribing diazepam (a type of benzodiazepine) or other tranquilisers for people who have a fear of flying we at The Beeches Medical Centre have decided it is no longer safe to prescribe such tablets for this purpose (unless you are taking them for other reasons already). 

• The use of any sort of central nervous system (CNS) depressant during a flight will put the passenger at significant risk of not being able to act in a manor which could save their life in the event of a safety critical scenario (& there will be no-one else to do it for them – cabin crew are there to guide them & not do it for them);
• The use of any sort of CNS depressant has the potential to increase the risk of a DVT – these drugs can induce non-REM sleep which tends to be of a type where the person does not move in their sleep, and therefore increases the possibility of sitting without moving for more than 4 hrs (the amount of time which has been shown to increase the risk of developing DVT whether in an aeroplane or elsewhere);  
• A paradoxical increase in aggression may be reported by patients taking benzodiazepines & therefore has potential to put other occupants of the aircraft at risk; benzodiazepines are not to be prescribed in phobic states 
• For some countries it is illegal to import these drugs and so the passenger will need to use a different strategy for the homeward bound journey and / or any subsequent legs of the journey; 
• NICE guidelines suggest that medication should not be used for mild & self limiting mental health disorders; in more significant anxiety related states – benzodiazepines, sedating antihistamines or antipsychotics should not be prescribed

Fear of flying is common despite flying being safer than road or rail travel in most developed countries.

Please see below for more tips and resources to help you overcome your fear of flying.

• Try distraction by talking with other passengers, watching a film, listening to music or reading.
• Tell the cabin crew. Reassurance about routine aircraft sounds and in flight activities can help.
• There are courses available (including FREE courses) for those who have a fear of flying.
  • British Airways Flying with Confidence
  • Virgin Atlantic Flying without Fear
  • Easyjet Fearless Flyer

• BBC: How to beat the fear of flying
• 8 steps to overcome your fear of flying
• Anxiety UK: Fear of flying