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 GHIC 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 UK 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 GHIC: what it does
The UK Global Health Insurance Card, or GHIC, is the starting point. The NHS website says it lets you get necessary state healthcare in some countries on the same basis as people who live there. That care may be free, or you may pay the same as a local resident would.
The basics, all from that NHS page:
- It is free, and valid for up to 5 years. Apply through the official NHS website. Unofficial sites may charge you for an application that costs nothing.
- It works in EU and EEA countries, Montenegro, Australia, Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, and St Helena, Tristan da Cunha and Ascension. In Switzerland it covers only some people, depending on nationality or status.
- Everyone travelling needs their own card, children included. You can add family members on your application.
- An existing EHIC still works until the expiry date on the card. After that you need a GHIC, or in some cases a new UK EHIC if you have rights under the Withdrawal Agreement.
- Leave time. The card should arrive within 15 working days. If it has not arrived before you go, you can ask for a Provisional Replacement Certificate.
For a medical condition, two details matter most. First, treatment for a long-term or pre-existing condition can be covered, as long as it is medically necessary, and the local healthcare provider decides that. Second, some treatments, such as kidney dialysis or chemotherapy, need arranging before you travel. If you depend on one of those, talk to your treating team well ahead and read the NHS page in full.
The GHIC: what it does not do
The NHS website is plain about this: the GHIC is not a replacement for travel insurance. It does not cover:
- Private medical care. The card is for state healthcare only.
- Medical repatriation, meaning being flown back to the UK.
- Mountain rescue, including on ski slopes.
- Anything a local resident would pay for, such as a patient contribution to costs.
So, if you have a condition, travel insurance is not optional. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) guidance on foreign travel insurance says that without the right cover you could be liable for emergency costs, including medical treatment, which may cost thousands of pounds. It gives the example of a stomach bug or infection treated in a US hospital, possibly with medical evacuation, costing £150,000 or more.
The same guidance says to declare existing conditions, and any treatment or tests you are waiting for, when you buy a policy. Not declaring one may invalidate it, at exactly the moment you need it. It also warns that if the FCDO advises against all or all but essential travel to your destination, your insurance may be invalid. TravelHealthPro, the website of the National Travel Health Network and Centre (NaTHNaC), advises cover that includes repatriation.
Check the destination first
Before anything else, read two pages for the country you are going to:
- The FCDO’s foreign travel advice for that country, which covers entry requirements and health risks. You can sign up for email alerts.
- The TravelHealthPro country page, which lists vaccine recommendations and other health advice, including any vaccination certificate requirements.
Vaccinations, and leaving them too late
The NHS website says to get travel health advice at least 4 to 6 weeks before you travel, because some vaccines need more than one dose and others take time to work. TravelHealthPro adds that for those with pre-existing health problems, an earlier appointment is recommended, and that even if time is short, an appointment is still worthwhile.
What it costs depends on the vaccine. In England, the NHS website lists some travel vaccines that are free at a GP surgery (cholera, polio given as part of a combined vaccine, hepatitis A and typhoid) and others that you usually pay for, at a private clinic, a pharmacy travel service or a surgery that offers them. It also suggests checking that routine vaccinations such as measles are up to date, using the NHS App or by asking your GP. In Scotland, travel vaccinations have moved from GP practices to health boards (NHS Lanarkshire is one example), so check your own board’s arrangements.
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 record in the UK covers where to find it.
The doctor’s letter, and what it has to say
“Get a letter from your doctor” is standard advice, usually followed by nothing about what goes in it. Having written a few, 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. TravelHealthPro asks for a letter from the prescriber detailing the medicines with their generic names. 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, stent, joint replacement or insulin pump, with the model if you have it.
And it needs to be dated and signed. For controlled drugs, GOV.UK says what the letter must include, which is covered below.
Two practical points. A letter for travel is usually not NHS work: the BMA says practices are able to charge for travel-related requests for information, though they are not obliged to, so ask your surgery whether there is a fee. The same BMA page notes that patients can sometimes show their NHS App record, online record or a medical summary from the practice instead.
Carrying your medicines
The rule that catches people out is simple. A medicine being legal in the UK tells you nothing about whether it is legal where you are going. TravelHealthPro says this can apply to medicines available over the counter in the UK, as well as prescription ones. GOV.UK says that if a medicine contains a controlled drug, you should check the rules for the country you are going to with its embassy before you travel, and that you need to be able to prove the medicine is yours, with a prescription or a letter from your doctor.
The practical steps, from TravelHealthPro and GOV.UK:
- 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, with some extra in the hold in case hand luggage is lost or stolen.
- Take enough for delays. TravelHealthPro recommends making sure supplies cover possible travel delays or lost luggage, and notes that the NHS accepts responsibility for supplying ongoing medication for temporary periods abroad of up to three months.
Controlled drugs and the Home Office licence
Some medicines are controlled drugs in the UK. TravelHealthPro gives examples including diazepam, codeine, fentanyl, methadone, morphine, Ritalin and temazepam. If you are not sure whether yours is one, ask your GP or pharmacist.
The Home Office rules are on GOV.UK’s page about controlled drugs personal licences:
- Up to 3 months’ supply of a medicine lawfully prescribed to you does not normally need a licence.
- More than 3 months’ supply generally needs a personal licence, and this applies when leaving the UK as well as entering it. It is treated as an exceptional circumstance, and you start by emailing the Home Office with the details the page lists, including a letter from your clinician.
- Contact the Home Office a month before you travel, according to that page.
- Carry a letter from your doctor or prescriber in either case. GOV.UK says it should include your name, the medicine details (doses, strength and frequency), and the prescriber’s signature and registration details, and that you may need to show it at the border.
A Home Office licence covers UK law only. It says nothing about the country you are going to, which has its own rules and its own penalties. TravelHealthPro notes that travellers found with drugs that are illegal at their destination or in transit have been imprisoned. That is why the embassy check comes first.
What happens when you actually need care
This is the scenario all the preparation is for. You are unwell somewhere unfamiliar, possibly in a language you do not speak, and a clinician is asking what you take and what you have had.
What they need, in order:
- Your current medicines.
- Your allergies.
- Your main diagnoses.
- Any recent results or procedures relevant to why you are there.
That is the same list as the letter. It is why the letter exists.
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. A printed English letter is better than nothing, but it is not the same as something the clinician can read. Our guide to translating medical records in the UK covers when a translation needs to be certified and when one for reading is enough.
And in a GHIC 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 checks official travel health sources against each traveller’s vaccines, naming the source for every line, 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 GHIC, your insurance or your licence. It does not replace declaring a condition, a Home Office licence 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 NHS connection. exora has no link to the NHS App, your GP’s system or any NHS service, and no NHS approval or UK health-data certification.
- Your data is stored in Sydney, Australia, outside the UK. 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.
If you are not visiting but moving countries permanently, the job is a different one and worth its own read.
The short version
Get a free GHIC from the official NHS website for each traveller, and remember it covers necessary state care in some countries, not private care, rescue or a flight home. Buy travel insurance and declare every condition. Read the FCDO and TravelHealthPro pages for your destination, and see a health professional at least 4 to 6 weeks before you go, earlier if you have a condition. Carry a dated letter with generic drug names, real diagnoses and what your allergy actually did, and ask whether the surgery charges for it. Keep medicines in original packaging, in your hand luggage. Check controlled drugs with the destination’s embassy, and ask the Home Office about a licence if you are taking more than 3 months’ supply.
Sources
- NHS website: apply for a free UK Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC) (countries, what it covers and does not, pre-existing conditions, EHIC until expiry, Provisional Replacement Certificate)
- FCDO: foreign travel insurance (cost of treatment abroad, declaring conditions, FCDO travel advice and insurance)
- FCDO: foreign travel advice
- GOV.UK: take medicine in or out of the UK (embassy check, proof the medicine is yours)
- GOV.UK: controlled drugs, personal licences (3-month threshold, applying, timing, what the letter should include)
- TravelHealthPro: medicines and travel (packaging, hand luggage, prescriber letter, examples of controlled drugs, NHS supply for up to three months, insurance with repatriation, imprisonment abroad)
- TravelHealthPro: country information and an example country page (appointment timing, earlier for pre-existing conditions, certificate requirements)
- NHS website: travel vaccinations (4 to 6 weeks, which are free and which are paid for in England)
- NHS Lanarkshire: changes to travel vaccinations (travel vaccines moved from GP practices to health boards in Scotland)
- BMA: travel medication and vaccinations (practices may charge for travel-related requests for information)
Claims about the GHIC, travel insurance, medicines and controlled drugs are sourced to the NHS website, GOV.UK, the FCDO, TravelHealthPro, NHS Scotland and the BMA, linked inline, and were checked on 9 November 2026. Rules and guidance change, and other countries’ rules are theirs to set; this page will be updated as UK guidance changes. This article is general information, not medical, legal or travel advice. How exora handles your information is in our privacy policy.
