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 This replaces the old E111 form which is no longer valid.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

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

Travel insurance for people with asthma

Asthma UK and Unique Insurance have developed an affordable travel insurance product for people with asthma.

This new scheme should not only help people with asthma obtain cover at more competitive rates 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
• Single trip and annual policies are available
• There is no age limit on single trip policies
• Asthma UK will receive a donation for each policy sold

To obtain a quote visit the Unique Insurance Website. Policies purchased online receive a 5% discount. Alternatively, call: 01603 828240 quoting ref AUK\WEB0001 (opening hours: 8.30am–6pm, Monday–Friday; 9am–1pm, Saturday).