The Department of Health and Social Care are asking patients not contact their GP surgery about their COVID-19 vaccination status. It will be made clear that GPs cannot provide letters showing COVID-19 vaccination status for their patients. To this end, practices might find the following wording useful to reiterate this message.
“Thank you for contacting the surgery enquiring about COVID vaccination certification. We are unable to issue this certificate at the practice.
Please see www.gov.uk/guidance/demonstrating-your-covid-19-vaccination-status-when-travelling-abroad for further information.
Proof of your vaccination status will be available on the NHS App, which is also valuable for accessing your health records and ordering repeat prescriptions. The NHS App can be downloaded from:
- www.apps.apple.com for iPhone or
- www.play.google.com for android
Alternatively, you can call the NHS helpline on 119 (from 17 May) and ask for a letter to be posted to you. This must be at least 5 days after you’ve completed your course of the vaccine, the letter may to take up to 5 days to reach you.