So I have been reading through all the medical examinations that people have had and their seems to be a common theme. That is that the doctor carrying out the examination is giving people a Tetanus booster and MMR jabs, this is fine in itself but they are then charging you extra for this privilege.

I recently made an appointment with my nurse and told her that this was the case, her response is thats ridiculous thats why we have NHS they are free through your local GP's office. She had no problems giving me the tetanus booster and even agreed for the MMR jabs, despite the fact it is usually only administered to children. She told me that yes you do need two MMR shots and to go back and see her the week before I fly out for good.

I felt I needed to pass this on as it seems that those doctors in Knightsbridge are making a tidy profit out of something we get for free elsewhere.

You will, however, be charged for any shots that aren't standard NHS ones. HepB is one of these, as a rule the charge is around 30 quid for the three shots to be administered.

I swear by the rule of going to your local GP Practice Nurse first, getting your vaccinations up to date, and then getting a printout of all your vaccinations to take to the medical.

The medical is now 200 quid, which is exorbitant, any money we can save here is good.

I made a call earlier this morning to one of the doctors (the one at basil mansions). I do agree with you about the money they are making; here's why. My parents didn't agree with us having vaccines as kids so I have over the years contracted mumps, measles, rubella & chicken pox (what were my parents thinking ) I basically wanted to make sure that if I had an immunity blood test through my doctors they would accept it. I was told yes but "instead" I could just have the vaccines done there and then if I "wanted" - Why would I want to be vaccinated against something I am already immune to? Perhaps to line the already comfy pockets of private doctors

However, I have to say the lady I spoke to was exceedingly helpful & I am sure was just doing the saleswoman part of her job!

Even after studying my husband's vaccine records it was determined that he needed a tetanus booster and a rubella vaccination, even though we'd spoken to his GP who informed us that his vaccines were 'up to date'.

A male Briton born in the 1960s or previously will pretty much always need a rubella vaccination, since back then they did not immunize boys for rubella. Only girls got it. Also, some vaccinations would have been done at school, not in a GP's office, and they may have no records of them. In those instances you can get the vaccine or pay for a titer which can take several weeks.

Many NHS surgeries will charge for an MMR vaccine or a single rubella vaccine for an adult. Ours would have, and it would have cost about the same as what we were charged at the medical. The tetanus booster probably would have been free had his GP felt he needed it, but his GP said he did not need it. Hence we would have been charged for that too. So, damned if we did, damned if we didn't.

You can get titers done to confirm immunity to various childhood diseases, but GPs/NHS pathology labs usually charge for those so once you've paid for four of them (for measles, mumps, rubella, and chicken pox) you may find it would have been cheaper and faster to just get the vaccines. It's something to think about.

We appear to have been amongst the lucky ones. Bruce had measles, mumps and rubella as diseases too (seems amazing to me as an American that anybody my age would have suffered these!), but we figured it would cost too much/take too much time to have titers done so we called his GP's office to find out how much it would cost. His combined MMR jab and tetanus jab came to the grand total of £0.00.

I find it interesting that some health authorities will charge for this, some not, some will give the MMR to adults, some not, etc etc. However, I can attest that the jabs are free if you're registered at Dr Bayer's practice in West Ealing!

You jammy thing!

Our GP would have hit us up for both, would have cost close to £50 for the two of them. GPs in York charge for anything and everything that they think you don't need; they are the god of your healthcare universe! We wouldn't have saved a thin dime by getting these done prior to the medical in London. Oh well...at the end of the day it was only £50. Plus the cost of the medical. Plus all the fees for visa processing. Plus the hotel room in London. Plus the cost of train tickets. Etc. *shrug* Gettin' a green card ain't cheap!

Indeed having read these posts of others experiences it does seem strange that an NHS practice can decide whether to charge you or not depending on how they feel. This either means the ones that are being charged have doctors trying to make a quick buck or two or the ones that aren't should smile sweetly and run as fast as possible.

I also checked on the history reports and was told no problem it's just a printout that will take us 5 minutes, again no charge.

Wow...when I had my medical at Knightsbridge, the nurse there actually told me to have the immunizations done at my GP because it would be free!!

We were charged £18 for ours, I think.

Yep, the Knightsbridge nurse complimented Bruce on being savvy enough to have it done at the GP. They must know it is a rip-off!

Private medicine in general is unbelievably expensive -- I remember getting a private prescription once and it was something like £25 when it would have cost around £6.50 on the NHS. My fancypants shrink in Harley Street was £110 a session and I saw her once a week for 4 months and fortnightly for 3 months after that. If my ex-husband hadn't kept me on his medical insurance long after we separated I would be bankrupt, still nuts or potentially both!!!

I had my injections done at my GP surgery. The surgery had previously lost my records so did not know which shots I had previosuly had.

I think they gave me Tetanus, MMR and another injection (I dont remember which) and the Polio booster drops all at zero charge!

You jammy thing!

Our GP would have hit us up for both, would have cost close to £50 for the two of them. GPs in York charge for anything and everything that they think you don't need; they are the god of your healthcare universe! We wouldn't have saved a thin dime by getting these done prior to the medical in London. Oh well...at the end of the day it was only £50. Plus the cost of the medical. Plus all the fees for visa processing. Plus the hotel room in London. Plus the cost of train tickets. Etc. *shrug* Gettin' a green card ain't cheap!
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I'm only in Leeds and my GP has just said I can get the titre done for free!! You should nip on the train! I am also eligible for US military healthcare for anything that the NHS won't cover (so my husband informs me!) so I might be able to save there too! I'm feeling very lucky now!!

You are pretty lucky! It's too late for us; my husband already has his green card, so the getting injections for free on the NHS ship has sailed in our case.

Both my son's and my own injections were free. I had MMR (although we noticed afterwards that I had actually had measles, mumps and German measles), tetanus, a meningitis one and polio, all for free.

The only one we were charged for was my son's HepB course. 30 quid.

I recently went to my GP in London and got the tetanus jab for free. I'm going back in a couple of weeks for the MMR jab (again free of charge), but I'm a little confused about what the OP said about having "two MMR shots". Can anyone shed any light on this? Do I have to go to the GPs twice for two separate MMR jabs? If so then how long apart do these need to be?

Never heard of that....My son has to have another Hep B injection tomorrow, I know sometimes you can end up having 3 for that.....

HepB is ALWAYS a 3-shot course. If you don't have the 3 shots, it won't work and you won't be properly immunised.

I was told by the Nurse that it is an active immunization meaning if you havn't had mumps after a couple of days you will become a little swollen then subsides in a cpl days, measels will be a slight rash but nothing major which will happen in 10-14 days etc. She advised that you do need 2 courses as they are literally injecting you with an active disease rather than the usual inactive one but in very small doses so the second is to build up a better defence.

In an ideal world she said 3 months but can be less time than that.

That's great. Thanks for the info.

Tim