Do you need a referral for a travel health consultation?

You can often book a travel health consultation directly with a general practitioner, without a referral from another doctor. Booking requirements vary by clinic, so ask when arranging the appointment and allow time for advice before departure.

A travel consultation considers your destination, itinerary, season, length of stay, activities, accommodation, and planned food or water exposure. The clinician also reviews your medical history, medicines, allergies, pregnancy possibility, and vaccination record. Advice may include routine vaccines, destination-specific prevention, insect-bite protection, food and water precautions, and what to do if illness develops abroad.

Book as early as practical and bring your passport details or itinerary, vaccination record, medicine list, allergy information, and copies of relevant medical letters. Mention remote travel, trekking, diving, animal contact, or planned medical care overseas. Ask whether medicines need original packaging or supporting documentation for border controls, and make a plan for carrying essential treatment safely.

Seek medical advice before travel if you are pregnant, have a long-term condition, take immune-suppressing medicine, or recently had surgery. During or after travel, obtain prompt care for high fever, severe diarrhoea with dehydration, breathing difficulty, confusion, jaundice, or a worsening wound, and mention recent destinations to the clinician.

Ask which vaccines or preventive medicines fit your itinerary, how to manage your regular prescriptions abroad, what symptoms require care during the trip, and whether a written travel-health plan would help.