Focus on travel immunisation
This Focus on travel immunisations explains which travel immunisations are available on the NHS and which can be charged for privately.
The original 'Red Book' regulations were written to cover the immunisations available at that time and consequently do not reflect today's clinical practice, and the subsequent new GMS contract (2004) took those regulations and carried them into the new contract as an additional service.
Consequently everything in the Red Book was transferred unchanged and included in the global sum of payments rather than the previous item of service system.
The change in availability of immunisations and the nature of foreign travel has made these regulations difficult to interpret, and confusion over how they apply to current practice. although this has become somewhat clearer with the publication of Annex BA of the Statement of Financial Entitlements on 30 April 2012.
Most misunderstandings of the regulations are due to the confusion between the clinical advice for when to administer an immunisation for travel, as set out in the 'Green Book' and the regulations indicating how practices are paid for it, as set out in the former Red Book.
- The Green Book - advises what to give and when
- The Red Book - advised what services were funded by the NHS
The Focus on travel immunisations, available to download below, explains in more detail which travel vaccinations are available on the NHS, privately, or both.
Downloads
Focus on travel immunisations (PDF)