Every travel health guide gives the same instruction. Carry a letter from your doctor describing your conditions, your medicines and your allergies. Bring your prescriptions. Keep everything in its original packaging.
It is good advice. What it usually leaves out is the part that matters:
- What your European Health Insurance Card will and will not pay for.
- Which of your medicines need more than a letter.
- What you do at two in the morning in a country where nobody reads English.
This is the Irish version of that checklist.
Disclosure
I am a doctor, and I founded exora, a personal health record app. It appears once, near the end, and I am explicit there about what it is not. Everything before that works whatever you use, including paper.
The EHIC: what it does
The European Health Insurance Card, or EHIC, is issued by the HSE. It lets you get healthcare abroad “for free, or at a reduced cost”, through the public system of the country you are visiting (HSE: apply for an EHIC). The basics:
- It is free. Citizens Information says there is no fee for the card, and renewing it is free too (Citizens Information: the EHIC). Apply through the HSE.
- Where it works. The HSE says “You can use an EHIC in the EU, the EEA and Switzerland.” The EEA countries outside the EU are Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
- Who can get one. People living in Ireland who intend to live here for at least a year. It covers holidays and short stays of up to 3 months, and students under 23 studying abroad for the academic year. Mature students are not covered under the Irish scheme.
- Everyone needs their own. “Each family member needs their own EHIC”, and a parent or guardian applies for any child under 18.
- Leaving soon? If you travel in less than 10 days, the HSE says to apply online and choose the travelling soon option. You get a Provisional Replacement Certificate, valid for 3 months.
- Check the date. The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) says the card is valid for five years, so check it is still in date before you go (DFA: sick or injured abroad).
The EHIC: what it does not do
The DFA is plain about this. “The EHIC does not cover repatriation costs and is not a replacement for a travel insurance policy” (DFA). Its country advice adds that the card “does not cover medical repatriation, ongoing medical treatment or treatment of a non-urgent nature” (DFA: Liechtenstein). And it is for the public system only, not private clinics.
It also stops at the edge of Europe’s arrangement. The DFA’s advice for Türkiye, for example, says an EHIC “cannot be used in Türkiye” (DFA: Türkiye). Outside the EU, the EEA and Switzerland, assume you are paying unless the DFA’s page for that country says otherwise.
The UK since Brexit
The UK left the EU, so many people assume their EHIC is now useless there. It is not, for a temporary visit. The DFA’s advice for Great Britain says Irish residents can show they are eligible for necessary healthcare on a temporary stay by presenting their EHIC. If you do not have one, it lists other documents that can be used instead, such as an Irish photocard driving licence, an Irish Residence Permit, or an Irish medical card or GP visit card, and says the document must be current (DFA: Great Britain).
The same page still recommends comprehensive travel insurance for the UK, covering all medical costs abroad, including medical repatriation. The rule for Europe applies here too: the card is a supplement to insurance, not a substitute.
Travel insurance, and declaring your condition
If you have a condition, travel insurance is not optional. Three points from the DFA’s advice:
- Get enough medical cover. The DFA passes on Insurance Ireland’s recommendation of a policy with “a minimum medical cover of €1 million” (DFA: Bosnia and Herzegovina).
- Make it fit your conditions. The same page says your insurance “should also be tailored to include any pre-existing medical conditions.” The Türkiye page gives the reason for mental health in particular: pre-existing mental health issues “should be declared when purchasing travel insurance as otherwise the policy may not cover treatment or hospital costs.”
- Check the exclusions, including the activities you plan to do.
An undeclared condition is the most reliable way to have a claim refused at the moment it matters. And the DFA cannot step in: its Consular Assistance Charter says “We cannot give you medical advice or pay for your medical bills”, and it cannot intervene in insurance disputes.
Check the destination, and register
Before anything else, read the DFA’s travel advice for the country you are going to. Each country page covers safety, entry requirements and health, including whether the EHIC applies there.
Then consider the DFA’s Citizens Registration. It is voluntary and for Irish citizens travelling outside the Common Travel Area. The DFA says the information lets it contact you, and help if necessary and possible, if there is a crisis such as a natural disaster or civil unrest, or if you have a family emergency while you are away.
Vaccinations, and leaving them too late
Some travel vaccines need several doses spread over weeks. The HSE’s page on the rabies vaccine, for example, says “It’s best to get advice at least 8 weeks before going abroad”, and that you usually pay for the rabies vaccine when it is for travel (HSE: rabies vaccine).
I will not tell you which vaccines you need. That depends on where you are going, what you will do there and your own history, and it is your GP’s, nurse’s or travel clinic’s call. What I will say is: take your vaccination history to the appointment. Our guide to getting your vaccination records in Ireland covers where to find it, which in Ireland can take some digging.
The doctor’s letter, and what it has to say
The DFA says to have “full details of your regular medications, medical history, allergies and drug sensitivities” with you when you travel (DFA). Its mental health guidance suggests a doctor’s letter listing your diagnosis and medicines, with a copy of your prescription, in the appropriate language (DFA: mental health and travel). Having written a few of these letters, here is what makes one useful abroad rather than decorative.
It needs your diagnoses in plain clinical terms, not abbreviations. “IHD, AF, T2DM” means nothing to a triage nurse in Lisbon. “Ischaemic heart disease, atrial fibrillation, type 2 diabetes” can at least be looked up or translated.
It needs your medicines by their generic names, with doses and how often you take them. Brand names are national. Paracetamol is acetaminophen in the United States, and the same drug.
It needs your allergies, and what the reaction was. “Allergic to penicillin” gets you a different antibiotic. “Penicillin: rash aged 12, no swelling or breathing difficulty” lets a doctor make an actual decision.
It needs any devices or implants, such as a pacemaker or insulin pump, and it needs to be dated and signed. Ask your practice whether there is a fee for writing it.
Carrying your medicines
The rule that catches people out is simple. A medicine being legal in Ireland tells you nothing about whether it is legal where you are going. The DFA warns that some countries treat certain medicines as evidence of drug smuggling, and says to check the import rules with the destination’s embassy before you go (DFA).
One example from the DFA’s own advice: for the United Arab Emirates, it says codeine may be illegal or treated as a controlled substance even when it was bought over the counter or prescribed in Ireland, that controlled medicines need approval before you arrive, and that arriving without it can mean the medicine is refused and you face prosecution (DFA: United Arab Emirates).
The practical steps:
- Keep everything in its original pharmacy packaging, with the label. Decanting tablets into a pill organiser for the flight is exactly the situation in which you cannot prove what they are.
- Carry a copy of your prescription as well as the letter. They do different jobs: one shows the medicine was dispensed to you, the other explains why you need it.
- Pack medicines in your hand luggage. The HSE’s diabetes advice suggests this “just in case checked-in bags go missing or get damaged” (HSE: medicine for type 2 diabetes).
- Take enough for delays: a late flight, a lost bag or a closed pharmacy on a public holiday.
Controlled drugs, and coming home through customs
Some medicines are controlled drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Act. In Ireland, the HPRA says “The Department of Health is the competent authority for controlled drugs. It issues controlled drug licences”, and the HPRA processes those licences and inspects on the Department’s behalf (HPRA: our role in regulating controlled drugs). The page does not deal with patients travelling, and I could not find an Irish licence for a patient carrying their own medicine abroad, so I would not assume one exists or is needed. Ask your GP or pharmacist whether your medicine is a controlled drug.
Coming back into Ireland, Revenue’s guidance for customs officers (last reviewed November 2026) says a traveller passing through a customs point “may carry on their person or in their baggage a reasonable amount of such medicines for personal use without an authorisation”, with one exception (Revenue: importation and exportation of medicinal products):
- Travellers from the Schengen Area carrying prescribed controlled drugs in Schedules 2 and 3 are required to produce an Article 75 Certificate, one for each prescribed product, covering at most a 30-day supply.
- Post and courier are different. The personal-use allowance does not apply to medicines sent by post, by courier or in merchandise.
Revenue’s page for travellers arriving from outside the EU lists medicines among the goods you must declare to a customs officer (Revenue: prohibited or restricted goods). If you take a controlled drug and are travelling within Schengen, ask your pharmacist, or contact the HPRA, about how the certificate applies to you, well before you go.
What happens when you actually need care
This is the scenario all the preparation is for. You are unwell somewhere unfamiliar, and a clinician is asking what you take and what you have had. They need your current medicines, your allergies, your main diagnoses and any recent results relevant to why you are there: the same list as the letter.
Two things make this go badly. The first is paper you did not bring, because the folder is in the hotel safe and you are in an ambulance. The second is a language gap at the worst moment. Our guide to getting medical records translated in Ireland covers when a translation needs to be certified and when one for reading is enough.
And in an EHIC country, show the card when you are treated, and keep it with your passport. A card left at home does not help you.
Where exora fits, and where it does not
Everything above works on paper, and paper has the advantage of not needing a battery or a signal. Carry the letter. Genuinely.
But the letter has two weaknesses. It is out of date the day after it is written. And the person most likely to need it is the person least likely to have it on them.
exora is a personal health record app, free to start, with an optional membership. You upload documents you already have, such as PDFs, photos or scans of letters and results, and exora reads them for you, with a reading system built for medical records. It builds one record from them: conditions, medicines, allergies, operations and vaccinations, each with a date, each linked back to the document it came from. Three parts are for this trip:
- Medical names change with where you are, so the record that says paracetamol at home says acetaminophen in the United States. The record can also read in English, Spanish, French, Italian or Portuguese, with the original wording one tap away.
- It can be handed to a clinician who has no account, from any browser, with nothing to install, and you end the access when you are done.
- A travel health planner. Tell it where you are going and it lists what official travel health sources recommend for that trip, checked against your vaccination history, so you have something to take to your GP or travel clinic. They decide what you need.
Where it does not help, plainly:
- It is not your EHIC, your insurance or a customs certificate. It does not replace declaring a condition, an Article 75 Certificate or checking whether your medicine is legal where you are going.
- It is not a signed letter. A border official may want a letter from your prescriber, and only your prescriber can write one.
- It can misread. The reading is automated, so check anything that matters against the original. That is why every fact links back to it.
- No HSE connection. exora has no link to the HSE Health App, your GP’s system or any HSE service, and no Irish health-data certification. Our comparison of the HSE app and a personal health record app covers the difference.
- Your data is stored in Sydney, Australia, outside the EU. How we handle it is on our security page; read it before you upload anything.
- It is not medical advice. It organises your information. It does not tell you what vaccines or care you need.
Travelling with children or an older parent? See managing family health records in Ireland, and for a young child, child health checks and records in Ireland.
The short version
Get a free EHIC for everyone travelling, and check it is in date. It covers necessary public healthcare in the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, and the DFA says it also works for a temporary stay in the UK. It does not cover repatriation, so buy travel insurance and declare your conditions. Read the DFA’s page for your destination. Carry a dated letter and your prescription, keep medicines in their original packaging in your hand luggage, and check controlled drugs with the destination’s embassy before you pack.
Sources
- HSE: apply for an EHIC in Ireland (where it works, who can apply, family members, provisional certificate)
- Citizens Information: the European Health Insurance Card (no fee to apply or renew)
- Department of Foreign Affairs: sick or injured abroad (EHIC validity, no repatriation, carry your medical details)
- DFA: travel advice for Great Britain (healthcare for Irish residents on a temporary stay)
- DFA country advice: Liechtenstein (what the EHIC does not cover), Türkiye (no EHIC; declaring mental health conditions), Bosnia and Herzegovina (medical cover, pre-existing conditions), United Arab Emirates (codeine and controlled medicines)
- DFA: mental health and travel (doctor’s letter, prescription, embassy check)
- DFA: Citizens Registration and DFA: Consular Assistance Charter
- HSE: rabies vaccine (advice at least 8 weeks before travel) and HSE: medicine for type 2 diabetes (hand luggage)
- HPRA: our role in regulating controlled drugs (Department of Health as competent authority)
- Revenue: importation and exportation of medicinal products (personal use, Article 75 Certificate, last reviewed November 2026) and Revenue: prohibited or restricted goods in baggage
Claims about the EHIC, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the HPRA and Revenue are sourced to hse.ie, citizensinformation.ie, ireland.ie, hpra.ie and revenue.ie, linked inline, and were checked on 9 November 2026. Travel advice and rules change, sometimes quickly; always read the current page for your destination before you travel. This article is general information, not medical, legal or travel advice. How exora handles your information is in our privacy policy.
