The GP, the Medicines and the Vaccines Before Your Child Leaves

Where to start

• Help your child register with a GP near where they’ll live, in their first week.
• Let them order their next repeat prescription themselves, while you’re still around to help.
• Ask your child to check with the surgery that their MMR and MenACWY are done.
• In the summer before your child leaves, sort out three health things with them: where they’ll see a GP, how any regular medicine will reach them, and whether their vaccines are up to date.
• If your child takes a regular medicine, work out before they go which surgery will prescribe it, which pharmacy they’ll use and how they’ll order it. Let them order the next repeat themselves while they’re still at home: through the surgery, or in England through the NHS App, which anyone aged thirteen or over who is registered with a GP can use. The NHS suggests ordering up to five working days before the medicine is needed. If a specialist team started the medicine, ask that team how it will continue after the move. If it runs out while your child is away, a pharmacy can supply some medicines in an emergency without a prescription, sometimes for a charge.
• If your child becomes physically unwell, or runs out of a medicine, and their surgery is closed, there is an urgent advice route wherever they are. In England, Scotland and Wales, call 111. In Northern Ireland, contact your GP surgery during surgery hours, or your regional GP out-of-hours service when the surgery is closed. For a life-threatening emergency, call 999.

The rest of the tip, and why it works, is in the library.

Sources

NHS, Register with a GP surgery (reviewed 2025); NHS, How to order a repeat prescription (2023); NHS, Emergency prescriptions (2024); NHS, NHS App (2026); NHS, MenACWY vaccine (2024)

It goes with

• When They Leave Home. For parents whose child is about to leave home, or has just gone, for university, an apprenticeship, a job or a year away.
• When They Stop Talking to You. For parents whose teenager hardly talks to them any more.

The first chapter you open here is free to read in full.

Free on this subject

• Leaving home. What to do first, what helps, and who else can help. Free to read and to print.
• Transitions. What to do first, what helps, and who else can help. Free to read and to print.