Travel: Health Services
(asked on 13th March 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to standardise the provision of travel health services in the UK.
Travel health services in the United Kingdom are provided by a range of National Health Service and independent healthcare services. In England, all providers offering travel health services that are delivered by a doctor or a nurse must be registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and are subject to normal CQC assessment and inspection procedures. The CQC has specified a minimum standard of practice for practitioners who deliver travel health services and require that training is in line with professional standards published by either the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow or RCN Travel Health Nursing: career and competence development. Further information is available at the following link:
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) contributes to the health of UK travellers through surveillance, testing, guidance and advice. Surveillance reports on travel-associated infections are published regularly on GOV.UK. UKHSA provides the scientific secretariat for the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, which advises the Government on vaccination and immunisation matters, including for travel vaccines. The UK Malaria Expert Advisory Group is responsible for guidelines on malaria prevention for health professionals. UKHSA does not have a remit to standardise the provision of travel health clinical services in the UK.