I am adding this post as it might help other insulin-dependent Australians planning on spending an extended period overseas – in France and the United Kingdom.

Mick and I departed Australia in early December 2018 and we did not know the exact date of our return, but we knew it would be at least 12 months. As it turns out, it will be almost 15 months that we will be out of Australia.

Mick uses a Medtronic insulin pump, and he knew before we left, that getting the supplies he needs for the pump while we were overseas was almost impossible. I guess nothing is impossible if you have money, but the cost of the parts would have been extremely expensive. So before we left, he ordered enough supplies to cover our stay overseas. This meant he needed a second, smaller hand luggage to hold the supplies, because one thing we have learned from our travels is that you never place any medications or supplies into your checked luggage, just in case it goes missing. You can always buy new clothes and a toothbrush, but losing your medical supplies could really ruin your holiday.

Mick also brought quite a lot of insulin with him, but we knew it would be never enough.

When we were staying in Montpellier in June this year – 6 months after we left Australia, Mick was able to get an appointment with a doctor who wrote him a script for insulin for 12 months. The cost of the visit was €25 (about $AUD41) – which we did not think was too bad at all

He has used that script until we left France a few days ago – but the cost of the insulin in France was more than eight times the cost of it in Australia.

Five cards of five vials of insulin in Australia cost $AUD38.80 – thanks to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme or $AUD1.55/vial.

In France, one card of 5 vials cost €38.80 ($AUD63.24) or $AUD12.64/ vial.

But, we knew there would be a cost involved before we left home.

Now we are in the UK, Mick was hoping he might be able to get his insulin a little cheaper than it had cost him in France.

On our first day here in Bristol, we visited a medical surgery, just next door to where we are house sitting, to find out how he could buy insulin, and he was told he had to go to a ‘walk in’ surgery.

The walk-in service is available for all patients whether they are registered with a local surgery or not. The service can treat any minor illness or minor injury, ranging from sexual health concerns and emergency contraception to wound management, travel health and smoking cessation.

Unless you are a registered patient you cannot get an appointment at a doctor’s surgery. Luckily there was a walk in centre located about a 20 minute walk away in a shopping centre called Broadmead.

The surgery was located inside a major pharmacy chain in the UK, called Boots.

When we arrived in the surgery we noticed about a dozen people waiting to see a doctor. Mick told the woman at the counter that he needed a script and he was told that there was a nurse at the practice that wrote the scripts. He was told to take a seat and that it could take at least an hour.

When it was his turn, Mick showed the nurse the script he had from the French doctor. And after a few jokes about how poor the handwriting of doctors was, French ones in particular, the nurse advised Mick that she could write him a script for one card of insulin. Mick explained that he was going to be here for three months and that he needed enough for that period. She explained that normally the scripts she was able to write were for ’emergency’ situations until you could get to see your own doctor.

However, the nurse was very nice and said she would write the script to cover the insulin Mick needed until we got back to Australia. She made a note on her files that Mick would be travelling around the UK for this period and would be unable to get into a doctor.

Excellent.

But, it got better!!

She then told Mick that he would be able to get the script filled for free. She told him to go downstairs to the Boots pharmacy and if there was any trouble, come back immediately and she would sort it.

So off he went as instructed, and low and behold, he received four cards of insulin (the amount he needed based on the supplies he had remaining from France) for free. When he asked if he needed to pay anything, he was told that because he was over 60 there was no charge.

Now I thought Mick would have had to show his passport, his Medicare card or something to show he was an Australian (possibly the only time he wanted to make any use of being part of the Commonwealth), but it was not necessary.

I hope by sharing Mick’s experiences it helps other Australians needing to buy insulin in France or the UK.