GP not offering travel vaccinations

[LorelaiLeighGilmore]

Hi ;

We're travelling to Bali in September so tried to book travel jabs with our GP, just basic ones. GP said they no longer offer travel vaccines. I've looked online and we will have to spend £3-400 on getting vaccinated. My issue is that I have 2 friends who live less than 10 minutes away, in the same borough but with different GP's whose travel vaccines are all free at their GP's. It's a really bad postcode lottery. Is there anything I can do about this or do I need to cough up?

If possible, I'd move GP to one who provides them rather than pay that extortionate amount!

Postcode lottery is bullshit, very unfair when taxpayers all pay into the system in the same way.

I don't think that the nhs should be paying for travel vaccines. It's a cost I factor in when booking the holiday, like insurance.

I'm surprised any GP does it free. Surely it's not appropriate for NHS to pay.

Are you sure they do it free, not just that they do them - with no fee for the doctor/nurse, but charge for a private prescription for the vaccine? That is what most do round here.

Thanks N0rtherrn, were trying to register elsewhere now!!
Nanny we have budgeted for everything for our holiday, we didn't expect to have to pay for vaccinations as everywhere I have ever lived provide them on the NHS. My issue is with the postcode luck lottery, not with the NHS providing them or not. They should either provide them to everyone or no one. Then everyone would know to budget for them. Thanks though.

But whether anyone thinks they should be free or not, the point is that some are available on the NHS, but it depends on your postcode whether you get them. That's not fair.

If I lived 10 minutes away they would be free. That's not fair. I get that it's cheaper than the costs involved with being very sick abroad but it shouldn't be free because you live in one postcode and not because you live in another.

It depends which vaccines you need though .., I'm pretty sure it's as standard at all GPS. Things like Hep A are free ... things like Japanese Encephalitis incur an extra fee of around £130 ... it depends on the vaccine not the GP.

There are quite a few that are free and then some you pay for. My gp does the prescription then you collect from the chemist to take back to the clinic for them to administer. Normally it's done through the practice nurse

My GP offers some vaccinations free of charge, but the rest you have to pay for. Tetanus and typhoid were free of charge, hep A would also have been free, but I didn't need to have that as it lasts 25 years so I was still covered.
If I had chosen to have all the vaccinations recommended, I was looking at around £400. I went to Vietnam, had no problems.

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Travel-immunisation/Pages/Introduction.aspx

www.fitfortravel.nhs.uk/destinations/asia-(east)/indonesia.aspx

My GP is the same as others. she does some for free but anything unusual/different then we are charged. are you certain that all the vaccines that you need for Bali are free at the other surgery? if so you can make contact with your surgery and ask why this is the case.

I don't agree with it being a postcode lottery, that is clearly wrong. however I do think that if you can afford a long haul holiday then you should have to pay for the vaccines and that should not be free at all.

Don't forget a new surgery may refuse jabs until they get notes from your previous practice unless you already have a record. There may also be a charge for a list of immunisations, we charge £8 if a list of imms from baby to adult are required.

Our gp does them but for a fee.

All GPs work to the same guidelines, there's no lottery, some are provided free at the point of delivery (nothing is free) on the NHS because it's been determined that it's in interest of public health that people are vaccinated, others pose less of a risk and are not provided free at the point of delivery. Holidays are not essential, therefore the jabs aren't essential. You won't gain anything from moving surgery.

DH travels for work and his work pay for his jabs - they aren't free

@sweeticedtea she will gain by moving surgery because her jabs will be free at the other surgery. Why do you sat she won't gain?

Our jabs are free but we weren't entitled to any NHS funding for ivf where we live so it cost us,£20k for that.

So swings and roundabouts!

But not all the jabs are free. Some are nhs funded and some arent

@dementedpixie op is saying that none of them are free at her surgery

www.nhs.uk/conditions/Travel-immunisation/Pages/Introduction.aspx

Some of them should be free - that page says that:
The following travel vaccinations are usually available free on the NHS:

diphtheria, polio and tetanus (combined booster)
typhoid
hepatitis A – including when combined with typhoid or hepatitis B
cholera

Is your GP charging you for those?

I'm no expert on charging, but I believe that if a practice has opted-out of offering travel vaccines as an additional service then they are under no obligation to offer even the NHS 'free' vaccines. They have had their Additional Sum reduced by 2% and so do not have to offer them. I don't know of many practices at all that do this; IME most will offer the bare minimum.

Some practices have decided that this is how they want to play it - the amount of time, effort and appointment restriction that goes into assessing travel health, ordering and buying vaccines, giving them and maintaining their staff's training for travel vaccines etc just isn't worth it.

Most practices, as where I work, offer a very limited amount of vaccines (typhoid, Hep A and DTP) and anything else must be obtained from a travel clinic.

Yep - it is that the surgery doesn't offer them at all. We could try and re register elsewhere but will probably be refused as is slightly further from where we live. Have decided to just go for Hep jab, and hope we don't get diphtheria or typhoid!

I've never had vaccs for Bali, are you sure you really need them?

So having paid to get yourselves to Bali for your exotic holiday, you'd rather not pay a few more hundred to get yourself properly vaccinated, just because you think it's not fair that your GP surgery doesn't do travel vaccinations? Bonkers.