UK Vaccination Records

[lost_at_sea 995]

I am under the impression that there is no expiry on the MMR, you just have to of had two lots of it (one would be a booster...)

That's right! As long as you got 2 doses (within a year of each other), you're good for life.

[Boiler 44,931]

Well just got back from my GP (practice nurse). She gave me the appropriate tdap but wouldn't give me an MMR before she'd checked my paper records which (to my surprise) they actually do have in the basement. So she's going to call me. Now I just need to double check if there's a time expiry on MMR because if I did have it , it was a long time ago being born in '57.

And there was no charge - I will sooo miss the NHS.

It helped that the nurse may well be moving to Seattle with her partner.

MMR requirement has a cut off date, you may not need it.

[Portlandia 15]

I remember an occasion 20 years ago when my mother admitted to keeping all my old vaccination records (and grade school reports and the like), and I said "why on earth would I ever need them?". She threw them out when they retired and moved to a smaller place. Ah, hindsight is a wonderful thing!

My GP surgery won't give me the MMR for free as I'm not in a risk group, so I paid £115 at a private clinic (Medicentre Victoria Station, London) to get a blood test confirming that I had the antibodies (i.e. proof that I was immunised as a child) so I don't have to have the vaccinations again (would have cost the same). Costly but easy to arrange.

My GP has given me a Tdap booster (as it's been 11 years since my last one and I told them I'm travelling to Turkey in a couple of months), and printed that out for me.

But there is no way I can get a complete medical history - I grew up in Australia and the GP practice I went to as a child has closed down, and the ones I went to when moving around after leaving school - well, I can't remember them all anyway, even if they're still in business. I can get a printout from my current GP but that will only be the last 8 years' worth of (very limited) history, I think apart from travel vaccinations and pap smears, I've only seen a GP twice. Will this be a problem?

(I spent 3 hours on google streetview the other night trying to figure out the house numbers and street names of all the places I've lived so I am ready to complete the forms. And that's places I actually lived - trying to figure out where my GP surgeries were is impossible!)

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

Nobody needs a printout of their medical records. Seriously!

If you have now or have had a serious condition like heart disease, diabetes, cancer, stroke, high blood pressure, schizophrenia, clinical depression, brain surgery... then the doctor at Knightsbridge will want to know about it in medical terms, not your telling. So your doc can write a half page summary of when diagnosed, the medical terms of the diagnoses, how it was treated or what meds you are on, your cure or prognosis, etc.

And MMR is two doses. They didn't have to be a year apart. Those born in 1956 or earlier are presumed immune so no requirement. (Sorry Marmite). If you had two as a child, you pass. If you had one as a child, get another. If you had zero or no record, then get one less than 28 days before your medical and you will be given the waiver for "insufficient time interval" because it would be a health risk to have two MMRs close together.

Edited June 19, 2013 by Nich-Nick

[rjm_cmyk 75]

Yerss - as a '57 baby I'm expecting to get it - possibly because I never had it or more likely because there's no record of it.

[Boiler 44,931]

Not convinced you need it.

[rjm_cmyk 75]

I can only go by the requirements i.e born in 57 or later you need proof of MMR vaccination. If I can't prove it I don't meet the AOS requirements. Seems pretty simple to me.

[Boiler 44,931]

So they just got you, could not remember the cut off date.