What to know when it comes to travelling with medical conditions.
Be prepared.
This goes with the territory, but make sure you’re ready to travel. If you’re taking medication, let your doctor know you’re planning to travel, and ask if you can get an extra repeat to take away with you. A health check before departure is a good way to know you’re in good shape to travel.
Check your medication is up to date (and allowed at your destination).
This may come as a surprise but common over-the-counter medicines like paracetamol aren’t always available – or even legal in some countries. You’ll usually be fine if you follow this simple advice: keep all medication in its original container, and make sure the name on the prescription matches the name in your passport. Even better, get your doctor to print on letterhead the medicines you’ll be travelling with.
Understand your destination.
Every holiday destination has its own personality, it’s part of the charm of travelling, but they sometimes have their health pitfalls too. Countries like Japan and UAE are highly restrictive, even when bringing in some drugs on your prescription. Whereas some destinations are synonymous with common ailments (think Bali-belly), and other places you’ll find you’re just more prone to picking something up because they’re more crowded, or less sanitary than back home.
Get covered for your medical conditions.
Whether it’s something common like asthma or allergies to well controlled diabetes, or more serious health issues like heart and lung problems such as emphysema or cholesterol, declaring your health conditions gives you confidence of your cover when you travel. Our online medical assessment is quick and easy to use, so there’s no excuse for travelling unprepared.
Help is just a phone call away.
When it comes to the crunch and you need help, we’re just a phone call away. When you phone (or email or text) us, our expert team jump into action. We have nurses available to take your call, doctors from back home available at 10 minutes notice to give you a telemedicine consultation, and access to the best local medical professionals wherever you are. And if worst comes to worst, our air ambulance partners will have a plane on the runway with an experienced team and on their way to you in no time.