TempoLife › Features › Hospitals, emergency care and waiting lists › what-to-bring
What to take to an emergency department or an admission
The medicine list that changes your treatment, the documents nobody asks for until they need them, and the things people always forget for a stay of more than one night.
This page explains how the system works. It is not a diagnosis, it cannot tell you how urgent your own situation is, and it is not a directory: it carries no clinic addresses, opening hours or visiting times, because those change and a wrong one sends you to a closed door. If someone may be seriously ill or injured, call the emergency number — 112 across the region, 113 for medical emergencies in Norway — and if you are unsure, call your country’s advice line rather than deciding from a web page.
The medicine list is the whole game
If you take one thing, take the medicines. Not the names from memory — the boxes, or a printed list with the dose, the strength and when you last took each. This is the single piece of information that most often changes what an emergency clinician can safely do: it determines whether a painkiller is available, whether a scan with contrast is safe, whether the bleeding is being caused by an anticoagulant, and whether the confusion in front of them is an illness or an interaction. Include everything, which means the inhalers, the eye drops, the contraceptive, the anticoagulant, the herbal preparations and the supplements, because interactions do not respect the distinction between a prescription and a shop shelf. If you have an electronic prescription record in your country, know how to open it on the phone.
Documents and the ones nobody mentions
Take an identity document; in most of these countries the record is national and identity is how it is found. A visitor from another EU or EEA country should bring the European Health Insurance Card, which does not change the treatment but does change who is billed and how much — see the cross-border page. Bring the referral if you have one, and bring previous results and discharge summaries if you are carrying an ongoing problem between systems, because a scan that has to be repeated costs a day. Write one contact name and number on paper and put it in a pocket: phones go flat exactly when someone needs to reach your family.
The things that make an older patient look confused
Glasses, hearing aids, dentures and a walking aid. It sounds like a comfort list and it is not: a patient who cannot see, cannot hear the questions and cannot stand up is routinely recorded as confused and deconditioned when they are neither, and the consequences of that mislabel run all the way to discharge planning. If you are packing a bag for someone else, those four items belong at the top of it, along with a note of what they are normally like — the baseline is what any assessment of confusion is measured against.
| Item | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Identity document and, for a visitor, the European Health Insurance Card | Identifies you in the national record and settles who pays |
| All medicine boxes, or a printed list with doses and times | Changes what can be safely given, and half of the danger is in what you already take |
| Allergy information, especially to medicines | Determines the antibiotic and the anaesthetic |
| The referral, and previous results or discharge summaries | Avoids repeating investigations and losing a day |
| A phone and a charger, plus one contact number written on paper | Phones go flat; a written number survives it |
| Glasses, hearing aids, dentures, walking aid | Missing these is the commonest cause of an older patient appearing confused |
| For a child: current weight, the child health record, a drink, a familiar object | Paediatric dosing is by kilogram; the rest keeps the child calm enough to examine |
| For an overnight stay: nightwear, slippers, toothbrush, small towel | Wards supply less than people expect and cupboards are small |
For a stay of more than one night
Nightwear, a dressing gown, slippers with a back to them, a toothbrush and toothpaste, a small towel, soap, a comb, lip balm, tissues, and earplugs and an eye mask — wards are lit and noisy at hours when you would rather they were not. Add a book or headphones, a water bottle with a lid, and a small amount of cash for a newspaper. Keep the bag small: bedside space is tiny and there is nowhere secure. Leave jewellery, watches and large amounts of money at home; hospitals will not accept responsibility for them and they are a genuine loss risk in a busy ward.
For a child, and for someone who cannot speak for themselves
For a child: the current weight, the child health record if your country issues one, the boxes of anything already given with the times, a drink, a change of clothes and one familiar object. For an adult who cannot give a history — because of dementia, a stroke, a language barrier or intoxication — the person who comes with them is the most valuable item on this list, and what they should bring is the medicine list, the baseline, and the name of the usual doctor. Interpretation is available in these systems and asking for it is normal; a relative interpreting for a serious conversation is a poor substitute and everyone in the room knows it.
Sources: This list is standard pre-admission and emergency department guidance across the region · checked 2026-09-08
Frequently asked questions
What is the one thing I should not forget?
The medicines — the actual boxes if possible, otherwise a printed list with doses, strengths and the time of the last one. It is the piece of information most likely to change what can be safely done for you, and memory is unreliable at exactly the moment it is needed.
Do I need to bring my insurance card?
Bring identity documents in any case. A visitor from another EU or EEA country should bring the European Health Insurance Card: it does not change the treatment given but it determines who settles the bill and on what terms.
What should I pack for an overnight stay?
Nightwear, slippers with a back, toothbrush, small towel, soap, lip balm, earplugs and an eye mask, a charger and a book. Keep it small — there is very little bedside storage. Leave valuables at home.
Why do glasses and hearing aids matter so much?
Because without them a patient cannot follow what is being asked and is easily recorded as confused, which changes the assessment and sometimes the discharge plan. For an older person they are the most important items in the bag.
Related pages
Emergency department, out-of-hours or your own doctor?
Five doors into the same health service, what each is actually for, and the two questions that pick the right one in about ten seconds.
How the emergency department decides who goes first
The five-level ladder, the target times that go with each colour, why arrival order is irrelevant, and what to do when you get worse in the waiting room.
Calling an ambulance: what the dispatcher asks, and why
The questions in the order they come, why you must not hang up, what to do in the minutes before the crew arrives, and when they will send something other than an ambulance.
Stroke, heart attack and sepsis: the conditions with a clock
The three emergencies where the treatment that works expires, the signs that should end the discussion, and why the ambulance beats the car even when the car is faster.
Which emergency department for a child
Where the paediatric emergency care actually is in this region, the age rules that override everything, and the signs that make a child’s illness a same-hour problem.
Every country, every number
The hub: emergency and advice numbers for the whole region, the access rules and all the country pages.
The four questions a hospital always asks
Age, weight, what you take and when it started. TempoLife keeps the medicine log, the symptom timeline and the measurements in one place, so the answers exist before anyone asks for them.