Three people a day die from asthma.
Asthma UK is the charity dedicated to changing this.

Holidays

Planning ahead is the key to enjoying your holiday and overcoming the problems of asthma.

Use this checklist to make sure you are prepared for a pleasant trip:

  • Draw up a written personal asthma action plan with your doctor or asthma nurse before your holiday.
  • Make sure you take enough inhalers and tablets with you to last the holiday plus a few extra days.
  • Take all your asthma medicines with you as hand luggage.
  • Before you leave, find out how you can get medical help (local ambulance or doctor) at your holiday destination.
  • Speak to your doctor, practice nurse or travel health clinic about vaccinations for travelling abroad at least two months before you travel.
  • Take out travel insurance to cover the costs of unexpected treatments while you are away. Check to ensure that your policy will cover asthma. Asthma UK has helped to develop an affordable travel insurance product for people with asthma, details of which can be found below.
  • If you are travelling in Europe, make sure you have a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). This replaces the old E111 form which is no longer valid. The EHIC entitles you to reduced cost, sometimes free, medical treatment in most European countries. However you should still always take out private health insurance, as an EHIC will not necessarily cover all the costs or your treatment and never covers the cost of being flown back to the UK.

The EHIC covers travel in:

Please note that not all UK residents are covered in Denmark, Iceland, Leichtenstein, Norway or Switzerland. For more information see the Department of Health website dh.gov.uk

 Austria   Latvia
  Belgium   Liechtenstein
  Cyprus (but not Northern Cyprus)   Lithuania
  Czech Republic   Luxembourg
  Denmark   Malta
  Estonia   Netherlands
  Finland   Norway
  France   Poland
  Germany   Portugal
  Greece   Slovakia
  Hungary   Slovenia
  Iceland   Spain
  Ireland   Sweden
  Italy   Switzerland
  Bulgaria   Romania