Medical and Dental Treatment for Long-term Travellers

Barry and Margaret Williamson
August 2011

We have written these notes in response to queries from long-term travellers (actual or anticipated). Any problems in this area follow from the undefined status of long-term travellers. Just about all health and other services assume that you are either resident in the UK or resident in another country. Sometimes, long-termers can be seen as neither!

For more on this and related subjects, have a look at: The A to Z of Long-term Motorhoming.

We have no direct experience of maintaining prescription medicines while long-terming, but we do have a diabetic friend who wrote a piece for our website which may help (see http://www.magbaztravels.com/content/view/44/27/).

Before you leave the UK, your doctor can prescribe up to a three months supply for you while you are out of the country. Here are two links:

http://www.know-insurance.co.uk/travel/info_advice/medication_abroad.htm 
and
http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/1755.aspx?CategoryID=73&SubCategoryID=105

This website also has links to eight health-related websites, including the NHS

After 3 months out of the country, you are supposed to de-register from your GP, then re-register when you return. But few do this.

Some travellers arrange a repeat prescription with their doctor and ask a friend or relative to collect the tablets and post them out. Obviously, we don't know if this is feasible in your case.

In some European countries (eg Greece), various medicines are available over the pharmacy counter without a prescription but we don't know the comparative costs in different countries. If you come across a cheap source, stock up!

Another possibility might be to visit a doctor in the country you are in, obtain a prescription to buy the medicines and use your EHIC card to obtain a refund (see http://www.magbaztravels.com/content/view/646/27/). The EHIC (see above) will cover you for emergency health care in every country in Europe.

You can of course also buy some prescription drugs over the internet.

If you decide to settle in an EU country, you problems are not necessarily over. You can use that country's health service once you have become officially resident, usually after three months. However, as far as we know, this will be free only if you are of retirement age or on a UK disability allowance. Otherwise, you will need to buy health insurance. Strictly and legally speaking, the UK National Health Service is only for people resident in the UK!

It is possible to buy health/travel insurance for long-term travel but it can be expensive, depending on your age and any pre-existing medical condition. It is a condition of such UK insurance policies that you are resident in the UK, and take out cover before leaving the UK from the date of departure. We rely on the EHIC when travelling only in Europe, and buy health insurance if going outside the continent.

The EHIC has covered us for emergency dental treatment (using it to pay at the local rate in Greece) and for free emergency treatment (stitches to a cut – again in Greece), but fortunately in our 16 years of full-time travel we have managed to keep well.

Above all, we hope that you stay healthy!