Setting up a travel health clinic

Pharmacists clearly have a key role to play in providing advice to travellers, enabling them to enjoy travelling whilst doing so safely. A detailed understanding of your customer's travel plans will enable you to provide comprehensive risk management advice.

A pharmacist may decide to simply provide advice and reassurance along with signposting to specialist travel health providers. Alternatively you may wish to provide a dedicated travel clinic where you supply and administer vaccinations and malaria prophylaxis.

If you are a Healthy Living Pharmacy (HLP - England) or a Health+Pharmacy (Northern Ireland) it might be worthwhile utilising your health promotion area.  It’s a great way to capture attention, engage customers and raise awareness.

A health promotion will help to spark a conversation with your community and raise awareness of the importance of being safe and healthy during a trip abroad. This is also an opportunity to signpost to your travel vaccination service if it is offered in your pharmacy and link sell products so that all your customers are travel ready!

Numarkent also has a Health Promotion Campaign area with lots of free downloads, resources and guidance on setting up your health promotion zone. Within this area (as mentioned earlier in the module) Numark also has lots of free travel health support (including how to set up a travel health and vaccination service) on their website at the Travel Health and Vaccination Service link.

Numarknet also has a very useful and free downloadabe resource called Lets Fly Away. This document contains a lot of information already covered in this training module plus lots of useful information and resource links on setting up a Travel Health promotion campaign and Travel Health private service.

There are various areas covered including:

• Key awareness dates throughout the year
• Suggested resources
• Tips on engaging the whole team
• Training
• Setting up a health promotion zone
• Tips on raising awareness
• Signposting
• Replenish resources
• Recording outcomes

As mentioned earlier in the module Numark also has lots of free travel health support (including how to set up a travel health and vaccination service) on their website at the Travel Health and Vaccination Service link.