University Health Services

University doctors typically reside in some sort of campus health centre. The University of Sheffield, for instance, has an explicit University Health Service, whilst Loughborough University has their Campus View Medical Centre and the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) has their UCLAN Medical Centre. The naming convention may not be that original but it does what it needs to do – it tells students new and old that there are NHS services available.

Whatever the name of the campus health centre, its purpose is to serve you the student as a GP surgery back home would. These are your go-to doctors and nurses for check ups, concerns, blood tests, asthma clinics, and more.

Student health is just as important of that for children or the elderly. At the bottom of this article you will find related blogs about university life. 

One such article talks about freshers; both about the flu but more importantly about sexual health. The local uni medical services can help with providing free contraception, but it may be that the local NHS trust has a different, dedicated sexual health clinic for STI testing. This can typically be done in person or via a postal kit, and your university will most likely tell you about it. If they don’t, and you are concerned, then please do contact your local STI clinic and see what support they can give.

The National Health Service will provide care for international students, but they must have prior registration for the international student health plan and have paid an immigration health surcharge.

Different sources have different prices for overseas student health cover, but you should always refer to the official UK Government website and their quoted pricing. Their page on Healthcare Immigration Application states that the current fee is £776 per year for a student, meaning £2,328 total should a student be part of a traditional three-year study course.

Students visiting on exchange programs, such as the former Erasmus programme which the UK partook in, do not have to pay for health cover if their stay is shorter than six months duration.

The £776 per year fee will be taken as part of the student visa application for foreign students to study in the United Kingdom. Once finalised, the international student will then be eligible for the usual NHS services such as:

·       Doctor’s appointments with a GP

·       Use of Accident & Emergency (A+E)

·       Hospital treatment

·       Sexual health and family planning services

·       Covid testing/vaccination services

Please note: If you are an international student you must have registered with your local GP surgery as soon as possible in order to be added to the NHS system and to be given a personal NHS number. This number will be your registry within the UK healthcare system and will allow you to be found by other health and care services – with quick confirmation that you are paid and eligible to use the NHS.

Private care:

Anyone is entitled to pay to use private health and care services. The NHS can have long waiting lists for certain treatments, particularly dentistry and optometry, so international students may find they need to pay additionally for certain treatments or appointments.

In many cases these fees might be minimal – an eye test, for example, is typically around £20 – but some dental treatments or other services may be more expensive and should be researched before committing to a treatment plan.

Please note: Opting for a private healthcare provider does not mean you don’t have to pay the immigration health surcharge. That is a mandatory fee as part of the student visa process, regardless of how much a student uses the NHS or not.

Frequently Asked Questions:

• Help with NHS costs for university students  
  Students who can prove they are in full time education are eligible for free prescriptions, a free eye test, and free annual dental check-ups under NHS England rules. This differs slightly for NHS Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, who have devolved rules and funding for their national healthcare and as such have free prescriptions for all.
  
  
• Do university students get free NHS dental care?  
  Some dental care is free for university students through the NHS. Some more advanced care requires payment, though universities with dental services will often waive charges should the patient agree to supervised work being performed by senior students as part of their training.
  
  
• Do university students get free NHS prescriptions?
  Yes. Students in full-time education in England are entitled to free prescriptions. Students in the other UK nations are, like all citizens, automatically entitled to free prescriptions.
  
  
• Doctors note at university
  Getting a doctor’s note at university is the same process as it would be at home, and can be arranged after a GP appointment for whatever ailment is an issue. This is also applicable for cases of stress, anxiety and burnout. Mental health should be taken just as seriously as physical illness, and most doctors will gladly support patients showing signs of anguish and distress.

Your local NHS Trust or health board – in collaboration with universities and local authorities, and even students themselves – are the ones delivering the healthcare required. If you do work within a Trust then you’ll already be using healthcare software of some sort, but getting the right solution in place is a big part of the battle. 

Modern challenges require modern solutions, which thankfully is something we at The Access Group provide. Software like Rio electronic patient records, our Mood Diary app, and Access Elemental social prescribing can provide trusts and other providers with a foundational but comprehensive coverage of patient management from an information point of view.

What we mean by this is that the EPR software acts as a centralised record. It is one source of the truth and an accurate hub of intelligence. From there, clinicians, carers and even community support can access relevant information to the services they provide to help students manage their physical health but also their mental wellbeing; maximising their potential development through the final, crucial stages of academia. This is especially useful for social prescribing where prevention and proactive interventions are the goal, rather than allowing deterioration and reactive, traditional care to be required.

Solutions like ours – and others accredited by NHS Digital – can give an NHS Trust that interoperability that allows the new software to integrate and work with the old. No wasted spending, just enhanced service provision that reduces errors, reduces the admin work, and speeds up the pathway from appointment to diagnosis to treatment.

This brings us to the end of our University Health Services guide. If this little rundown of what to expect from your local NHS on campus has helped, why not check out our related student health articles below on dealing with the Freshers Fayre and with student mental health.