Travel Vaccinations

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The following vaccinations are available free on the NHS from our practice:

• Cholera
• Diphtheria, polio and tetanus booster
• Hepatitis A - some combined vaccines, such as combined - Hepatitis A and B
• Typhoid

These vaccines protect against diseases which are considered to be the greatest risk to public health if they were brought into the country.

For other private travel vaccinations you are advised to attend a local private clinic and you will have to pay for these to be administered:

• Hepatitis B
• Meningitis C and other meningitis vaccines 
• Japanese encephalitis
• Rabies
• Tick-borne encephalitis
• Tuberculosis
• Yellow fever 
• Malaria Tablets

The surgery does not run a formal travel clinic, we recommend the Fit For Travel website or a dedicated travel clinic for more in depth advice.

Advice and vaccination are given by the Practice Nurse. Please do not ask any of the Receptionists for advice regarding travel vaccines, as they are not medically trained. If you have any queries, you must make a 10 minute appointment with the Practice Nurse. You will be asked to complete a travel questionnaire prior to the appointment, so that the Practice Nurse can check what vaccines you may require. An online version is available below.

We recommend that you have your travel vaccinations administered at least 4 – 6 weeks before your departure date.

Read the latest health advice for the country you're travelling to on the Fit for Travel website, and check the travel safety updates with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.

You may need travel vaccines or, if diseases such as malaria are a risk, you may need to start protecting yourself well in advance.

Prepare a kit of travel health essentials, including sunscreen, painkillers, antiseptic, insect repellent and anti-diarrhoea pills. These will be useful wherever you're going.

Sexual health experts advise taking condoms with you to avoid the risk of buying fake brands, which may be unsafe, when you get there.

So we can offer you the appropriate advice, please fill out our secure online form before coming into the practice.

Prescribing Diazepam for Fear of Flying

Yalding surgery will no longer be prescribing Diazepam for Fear of Flying. There are a number of reasons why prescribing this is not recommended for the safety of Patients.

1) Diazepam is a sedative, which means it makes you sleepy and more relaxed. If there is an emergency during the flight it may impair your ability to concentrate, follow instructions and react to the situation. This could have serious safety consequences for you and those around you.

2) Sedative drugs can make you fall asleep, however when you do sleep it is an unnatural non-REM sleep. This means you won’t move around as much as during natural sleep. This can cause you to be at increased risk of developing a blood clot (DVT) in the leg or even the lung. Blood clots are very dangerous and can even prove fatal. This risk is even greater if your flight is greater than 4 hours. 

3) Whilst most people find benzodiazepines like diazepam sedating, a small number have paradoxical agitation and increased aggression. They can also cause disinhibition and lead you to behave in a way that you would not normally. This could impact on your safety as well as that of other passengers and could also get you into trouble with the law.

4) According to the prescribing guidelines doctors follow (BNF) Benzodiazepines are contraindicated (not allowed) in treating phobia. Your doctor would be taking a significant legal risk by prescribing against these guidelines. They are only licensed short term for a crisis in generalised anxiety. If this is the case, you should be getting proper care and support for your mental health and not going on a flight.

5) Diazepam and similar drugs are illegal in a number of countries. They may be confiscated or you may find yourself in trouble with the police.

6) Diazepam stays in your system for quite a while. If your job requires you to submit to random drug testing you may fail this having taken diazepam.

We appreciate that fear of flying is very real and very frightening. A much better approach is to tackle this properly with a Fear of Flying course run by the airlines. We have listed a number of these below.