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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.

Эта страница объясняет, как работает система. Это не диагноз, она не скажет, насколько срочна ваша ситуация, и это не справочник: здесь нет адресов клиник, часов работы и часов посещения, потому что они меняются, а неверные ведут к закрытой двери. Если кто-то может быть тяжело болен или травмирован, звоните по экстренному номеру — 112 по региону, 113 для медицинских экстренных случаев в Норвегии — и если не уверены, звоните на консультационную линию своей страны, а не решайте по веб-странице.

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.

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.

Источники:This list is standard pre-admission and emergency department guidance across the region· проверено2026-09-08

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