Need help repeating medication while on vacation.

Hello . I would like to know if there's a way to get my hydroxyurea while I'm in London for a couple months?

[jo19]

What part of London will you be staying?

[Hidden in reply to jo19]

Croydon

[Hidden]

New Addington

[bluebug]

General advice is you need a prescription plus a letter on your doctors letter head stating exactly the medication is you need and why. Then you should in theory be able to find a private doctor who should be able to write a prescription to get your drugs in the UK. They will likely have to check with your doctor in the US first so there will be a delay of a couple of days. (Even though the doctor is a private practitioner they can still get struck off hence the checks.)

The price of private prescriptions vary due to the cost of the drugs, and you will also have to pay for the private doctors consultation which will between £50-£100.

As I don't live in that part of London the only private doctors I know are further in London so will take you about an hour to get there e.g. central London.

If you are only here in London for two months it is better that you carry just over 2 months supply of medication with you plus a doctors letter on headed paper stating what your medication is, why you need it and that it's for your own personal use in case customs wants to check your bags.

[SCSZoe Partner Sickle Cell Society]

Hello, thanks for your question. Bluebug's answer has a lot of helpful advice, and if it is only for a few months then it will be easiest for you to bring your medicine with you.

Where will you be travelling from? If you're a citizen of an EU country or Switzerland, and have a European Health Insurance Card, accessing NHS services is fairly straightforward and you don't have to pay. The countries on the list in this link also have reciprocal care agreements with the UK--this means you may not have to pay much, if at all nhs.uk/NHSEngland/AboutNHSs...

Please note that if you are travelling from a country with a reciprocal care agreement, the UK still charges for prescriptions, a fee of £8.40 per item. A lot of the time, they will only give you a short supply and you would have to pay this £8.40 every time you pick up more medicine.

You may also be able to register with a GP as a temporary patient if you are not from a country with a reciprocal care agreement. However, a warning here: they can charge you for this, and charge you more for the prescription. There's more information here: citizensadvice.org.uk/healt...

And finally, if you lose your medication or need an emergency supply, this might be possible although it will also come with charges. Further information on emergency prescriptions here: nhs.uk/chq/Pages/1011.aspx?...

Sorry to not be more help: the NHS can be a bit of a labyrinth sometimes!