I've had some aches and pains in my shoulder/back lately. I've been to the GP, they've run a few tests and determined that they think it is muscular-skeletal. No further tests, suggest I continue with stretching and exercises. Knowing I was thinking of going on holiday, I asked them how I should state this to a travel insurer - they pretty much said it wasn't even worth declaring. Having read through the small print of many travel insurance policies for a previous holiday, I know that this isn't how the insurers view things!
So I've been looking at a few quotes and finding that the pre-existing medical options don't seem to include something that I can declare. I want to pick "shoulder pain" or similar, but that doesn't seem to be an option.
I phoned up a couple of places and explained there is no active testing happening and this is how the doctor has described it to me. But, I am being told that "shoulder pain" is a symptom and if I can't tell them specifically what's causing it then it will be "undiagnosed".
I'm not expecting this to cause a problem for my trip, but I do want to make sure that I'm not accused of not disclosing something on the policy should I need to make a claim for anything else. So I'm stuck in a bit of a catch 22 where, if things stay as they are, I won't be getting a definitive note from my GP that says "muscle condition x" and I will therefore eternally have an "undiagnosed condition" as far as the travel insurers go. The GP is happy and has actually encouraged me to go on the trip.
Funnily enough, "backache" is something I can declare but in the NHS app my doctor has referred to "shoulder" rather than "back"!
Does anyone have experience of going back to their GP and asking whether they would be happy to state a condition is something that an insurer would accept i.e. to use the insurer's terminology? Or know of any insurers who could check something that isn't listed in their in their main directory of conditions and offer some flexibility in cases like this? Perhaps a broker would be the way to go rather than a big callcentre insurer.