Tuesday 17 May 2022

Getting foreign vaccinations on the NHS app. Covid 19. Sinopharm.

I was vaccinated in Dubai in January 2021, just 3 weeks apart between the jabs. I chose to have the Sinopharm vaccine as it was the only one on offer and with me travelling back and forth to Dubai I was concerned that it could become a condition of travel to enter the UAE and I wasn't being offered the vaccine in the UK until March/April 2021 and the second dose date at that time was unknown.

In October 2021 the Dubai Health Authority recommend a booster dose of Pfizer and again 3 months later.

We registered our vaccines with our GP on our return to the UK, but they could not be coded onto the NHS. Our GP wrote a letter to confirm they were genuine in case we needed to travelEndless phone calls and emails yielded nothing. Our GP agreed to the booster and recorded it as a booster, he had to over ride the system to do so. We received a call from the NHS team to ask us why we had a booster without the first 2 vaccines, we explained but nothing came of it.

When we had our second booster the NHS were registering vaccinations administered in Europe and certain vaccines in approved countries, but not the UAE. I was also working at the NHS vaccination centre in Worcester so was able to find out this information a lot easier. Our second dose was recorded as our first dose. No call from the NHS at that time.

We had been advised to return in a further 3 months for another vaccination which technically would be a booster and told to have the half dose Moderna as our Sinopharm vaccine was over a year old. We booked through the NHS and were informed we needed to rebook an Overseas appointment and return with our Sinopharm papers to have them put onto the app as long as they were the Beijing vaccines, which they were.

We're travelling to Australia this summer to visit our middle son after 3 years and whilst I'm sure Australia accept vaccine certificates from the UAE, we were a little concerned that might not be the case or may cause some confusion as our Emirates ID cards they are linked to has expired and we would be travelling from the UK.

We're all sorted now, just need to book our flights and check the requirements for travel and PCR's nearer the time we fly.

It's a much easier process now to travel with clear guidelines, unlike the travel I did during covid that changed over night and cost us a small fortune to do.


4 comments:

  1. That's good it's all sorted now. Must have been a bit of a concern having to wait an keep checking. I'm still waiting for the NHS booking via our surgery for jabs to say N's had his first one, as they're still saying no. If it stays like that we probably won't get to book via them and will end up hafing 5o go centrally and travel further.

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    Replies
    1. such a relief to know we can now fly to Australia this summer

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  2. Thisiswhereitisat24 May 2022 at 14:35

    I am glad d it has got all sorted out for you x #pocolo

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