Travelling to Australia while awaiting treatment for high blood pressure - need travel insurance advice!

[Beaumon]

I’m due to travel to Australia for 2 weeks at the end of September to visit friends and was planning to buy my plane ticket this week. I recently had a high blood pressure reading at my GP surgery and they asked me to do morning and evening readings for a week. The average was 152/103, which I reported back to them, they asked if I had any symptoms (no, I feel fine) and they have now made me a phone appointment with a pharmacist ‘who deals with blood pressure and cholesterol readings’, but it’s not until 20th Sept, ten days before I’m due to travel. This has all been done via their text service, I haven’t actually spoken to anyone yet.

I’ve looked into travel insurance and I understand that I need to notify them of any medical conditions. The problem is that I assume, given the readings, that I have a diagnosis of hypertension, but I don’t yet have any treatment, and won’t until I’ve spoken to the pharmacist ten days before my flight. So I can’t book travel insurance yet as it says I won’t be covered for any existing conditions for which I am waiting for treatment, and my worry is that I will not be covered for any conditions that are even vaguely relatable to blood pressure/ circulation/ heart etc.

From what I’ve read, it seems like hypertension is easily treated and I’m likely to be prescribed some tablets – great. It just seems a bit of a gamble to wait until ten days before I travel in case I have any bad reaction to them.

I can’t postpone the trip, this is a very rare opportunity to step away from my caring/ work responsibilities for a couple of weeks and there are no other dates that work. So I either go for these 2 weeks staring the end of September, or I don’t go at all (or at least probably not for several years).

I will contact the surgery again in the morning and ask if there’s any possibility of bringing the phone appointment forward, maybe if they have a cancellation.
But in the meantime, I’d really appreciate other people’s thoughts/ experiences/ advice on how I should proceed. Should I just buy my plane ticket now and wait to buy insurance until I have the tablets? Am I likely to have side effects from the tablets? If I do have side effects, I'm worried I won’t have time to start a different medication before I travel.

Argh. Sorry this is long and boring, it’s just all rather new territory for me (have been very fortunate to be very healthy up until now), and I currently can’t see the wood for the trees! Am I foolish to go on this trip?

Oh blimey, that is an absolute wall of text, congratulations/ commiserations if you got to the end!

Would you consider paying to see someone privately? (A cardiologist could easily manage this).

It would be much quicker and then mean you can actually get travel insurance (which would save you a lot of money if anything did happen). That BP needs treating but isn’t the end of the world at all.

My husband has high BP.

We travel a lot and have bought insurance from a lot of different places. He declares the condition but it's always just covered as part of their standard offering. No extra charge.

Oh yes, that could be an option as a one-off. How would I find someone suitable - is it a cardiologist I need? I've not used private health care before.

I would google your local private hospital cardiologists and choose one you like the look of that has availability asap. Any cardiologist should be able to manage this.

Another option is a private GP - some of these are cheaper than a private cardiologist would be but will be less specialised. Again I’d google for closest to where you live.

I would have thought that your average blood pressure is quite high and that you could get an appointment before 20 September if you ask again?

I take Amlopidine for high blood pressure ( lowest dose) and have never had any side effects, other than very slight swelling of my ankles.

I think you will have difficulty getting insurance until this issue is sorted out.

Maybe rub some insurance quotes with a declaration of high blood pressure and without. See if it makes any difference in price? You could then just declare it now.

Thanks for your reply. I'm glad your DH are able to find insurance - as I understand it, it's that policies don't cover conditions that you're awaiting treatment for. Presumably your DH is being treated for it (or has been told he doesn't need treatment?)?

Thanks very much for your helpful advice, I'll look into that tomorrow.

Being asked to see a pharmacist hardly seems like awaiting treatment! It’s not a referral to a specialist!

It is waiting for the pharmacist to start medications (many pharmacists can prescribe medication now) and so it is waiting to start treatment.

They did get back to me very quickly when I sent in the results, but the urgency seemed to fall away when I said I felt fine. Mind you, it's hard to get much of a tone from a short series of one line text messages. I will ask if the appointment can be brought forward. I agree that it needs to be sorted before I get insurance (it'll be pretty worthless otherwise). Thanks for you help

My thinking… Book now and pay cheap travel insurance. Something which covers flights etc. Shouldn’t be expensive.

Then after the medication arrives.. get another travel insurance. It’s then ‘treated’. So that is the insurance you use if you’re ill on holiday.

The first insurance is just to cover anything crazy happening with flights in the interim.

Thanks, I have tried this and it's really not much difference in price - the problem is that as I'm currently 'awaiting treatment' for hypertension, the insurance will not cover me for anything connected with that condition.

I think you need to start your treatment sooner if that is what is likely to be happening. I would call the GP and say you need a diagnosis confirmation and an earlier appointment. If they really can't fit you in at all, then I would go the private GP route (likely to be cheaper than private cardiologist). There are national online options, although a local one would be able to check your BP for themselves. As well as the insurance, you ideally also want to start trying the med before it's only 10 days before your travels.

Thank you, yes, that had gone through my mind (a great many things have gone through my mind in the last few days!). Tbh even if I declare untreated hypertension it's still only £60 or so for the insurance, the problem is just that the medical cover will be crap. But £60 is a small price to pay for what would basically be flight insurance, and as you say I can then buy a new policy which would cover my (hopefully) treated hypertension before I actually travel. Yes, I might well do that, thanks (will still try and get appointment brought forward!)

Thanks, this is very sensible advice. I will try the surgery first thing in Monday and follow up private options if I get no joy with the GP.

No, it’s awaiting a diagnosis.

OP I think you need to go into the surgery and speak face to face with someone explaining your situation and how important and urgent it is for you to get insurance for long distance travel. They will hopefully respond with quicker treatment pathway and a letter confirming diagnosis if that is what insurance needs.

i have always found when in rare similar circumstances with NHS that once someone understands your situation they will do what they can to help. There are some truly amazing people working in health though I know many people have other stories to tell.

I definitely would not travel without the full cover but you sound as if you really need to go at end of September. You just need to get them to help make it happen. At the moment you are in the usual system and there is less urgency so communicate with them asap.

As you rightly say, the issue is that you are awaiting treatment and therefore insurance won't want to cover you.
I have 'controlled hypertension' ie I take medication and my blood pressure is normal and this therefore has no impact on my travel insurance costs but even once you are diagnosed and treated you don't really have time to prove that your BP is now controlled. I had my medication changed 3 times before it started to do the job for me (some unpleasant side effects, dosage changes etc)
Sorry not to have the answer but I think given your time constraints you're not going to be able to get yourself cover for this

Ring your surgery annd ask if you can be seen earlier. Explain the situation. I’m surprised they are happy to wait before seeing you, tbh…

https://www.staysure.co.uk/medical-travel-insurance/undiagnosed-conditions/

these guys will give you cover with undiagnosed conditions

I went with Staysure, on holiday now. I declared my still being investigated heart issues. Mine was £86, healthy as a horse DH was £40. I know I won’t be covered for heart related issues, it’s just tough really.

If you don’t declare and had an incident I’m sure insurers always look for a reason to not pay out. You need to declare because it’s on your medical records. I was still awaiting results, it had been 12 weeks when I spoke to the hospital and explained I needed them, I got them the next day. It’s still ongoing unfortunately.

Frankly that’s not the NHS’ business. I needed to see a specialist for travel insurance purposes and they all shrugged, said it was my own fault for taking the risk, and I could wait. Imagine if you’ve been waiting to see a specialist then find out you’ve been queue jumped because someone wants to go on holiday!

You need to pay private to expedite care.

Amy private GP could also deal with this and might be quicker and cheaper to access than a cardiologist.