Brit holidaymakers face £30 charge from GPs for Covid vaccine passport allowing them to travel abroad

BRIT holidaymakers face a £30 charge from GPs for a Covid vaccine passport allowing them to travel abroad.

A string of tourist hotspots, including Greece and Spain, are considering plans to allow travellers to skip quarantine if they can show they have had the jab. 

Downing Street has been adamant that it does not plan to issue vaccine passports to allow people to travel once they have had both doses of a vaccine.

But with countries such as Greece stating that they will waive quarantine requirements for those who have been jabbed, ministers are examining ways in which Brits with protection can travel once the lockdown is over.

Vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi yesterday suggested that tourists would be able to ask their GP for written proof they had been jabbed.

But Brits could be forced to pay a fee – as doctors are able to charge for writing vaccine certificates because it falls outside their NHS contract.

Practices can set their own fees, which range between £15 and £30, the Daily Mail reports.

Mr Zahawi yesterday suggested that vaccine passports would be “discriminatory”, and stressed scientists didn't know for certain whether jabs could prevent people passing on the virus.

He told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday: “One, we don't know the impact of the vaccines on transmission.

“Two, it would be discriminatory and I think the right thing to do is to make sure that people come forward to be vaccinated because they want to, rather than it be made in some way mandatory through a passport.

“"If other countries obviously require some form of proof, then you can ask your GP because your GP will hold your records and that will then be able to be used as your proof you've had the vaccine.”

“But we are not planning to have a passport in the UK.”

But doctors' groups last night stressed that handing the task of writing vaccine certificates to GPs would create an unnecessary mountain of paperwork.

Dr Richard Vautrey, chairman of the BMA GP committee, told the Mail: "Practices are working flat out successfully delivering the Covid vaccination programme while continuing to provide non-Covid care to many other patients.

"To prioritise this vital work, we need a reduction in bureaucracy and admin tasks."

He added: "It would far better if all patients had easy access to their vaccination history electronically so that they are able to provide evidence of this without needing to request a letter from their surgery."

It follows claims that ministers were working on a "targeted" vaccine passport scheme that will allow vaccinated Brits to return to a 'more normal' life.

The Telegraph reports a targeted scheme could see people applying for proof that they have been vaccinated to carry out daily tasks.

The most common use would be to allow people to go away on foreign holidays, but a vaccine passport could assist people to take part in another activities, the publication reports.

Meanwhile, Labour's shadow business secretary Ed Miliband said vaccine passports "may be necessary" but raised questions over how they would be used.

In an interview with the BBC's Andrew Marr, the former party leader said: "We should be open to this."

However, he acknowledged there would be "complications", asking: "Is it just for international travel?

"Is it for as you go about your business in your society?"

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