Really proud of Rachel today as she womanfully faced her longstanding needle phobia at the Travel Health Consultancy in Exeter. Of course she has little choice in undertaking this trip as the list of jabs is quite onerous (though necessary). To be fair she was already in the van en route before she asked “So are we actually having injections today?”. I think I managed to conceal my smirk OK!
So why The Travel Health Consultancy? You might remember that we first met James Moore at a local Royal Geographical Society event held at Blundles School last year. James gave a fascinating talk about his career in expedition medicine and afterwards we gleaned details of his company in Exeter. It was quite clear from listening to him at the time that he knew what he was talking about, plus he was obviously enthusiastic about the field.
We can vouch from today’s visit that his advice was current, tailored and comprehensive. I’m not entirely convinced that you will always get the same ‘level of detailed consideration’ at a GP surgery, and the cost is equivocal. (NB James did highlight which jabs we should obtain on the NHS [free at the point of delivery] via the GP and we will of course be following up on this). For your interest I’ll post the full schedule when we have it confirmed – we have three more dates with James and one (at least) with the GP. Today was the first Rabies and Hepatitis B.
I did ask James whether travellers generally budgeted for vaccinations – and it seemed to be that most people get there in the end; although it might not be a cost that people factor in initially. He made the point that if boosters are kept up to date, then given that the jabs remain protective for many years, they are good value. Personally anything that mitigates risk and reduces the likelihood of [distracting] problems on the road is good value in my book. We can wholeheartedly recommend James and his colleagues at the Travel Health Consultancy.