Holidays

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 This replaces the old E111 form which is no longer valid.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  

Travel insurance for people with asthma

Many people with asthma have told us that getting travel insurance can be very difficult and expensive. We are currently working on putting together a factfile with more information on what someone with asthma might need to think about when travelling including information on travel insurance such as:

• Gaining written permission from your doctor or asthma nurse before travelling
• The amount for a travel insurance quote will vary from person to person and depends on a range of things (age, medicines, number of emergency admissions, other conditions you might have, place of travel)
• Where to go for more information

Unique Insurance

Asthma UK has worked in partnership with Unique Insurance who have developed a travel insurance product for people with asthma.

This scheme should not only help people with asthma obtain cover but also provide further benefits for people looking for travel insurance:

• It is quick and easy to purchase, as no referrals for medical screening are required
• There is no age limit on single trip policies
• Asthma UK will receive a donation for each policy sold