What goes on your parent's emergency contact sheet

One page, one place, no exceptions

The sheet only works if it is findable by a stranger under pressure. That means one page, printed large enough to read at arm's length, in the same place in every house that matters.

The conventional place is the front of the fridge, because it is where crews are trained to look. Put a second copy inside the front cover of the folder and a third in your parent's bag or wallet.

Keep it to one side of one page. The second something spills onto page two, half of it stops being read. If you cannot fit everything, cut detail rather than adding a page — detail lives in the folder, and the sheet says where the folder is.

Put three things in the header: your parent's full legal name as it appears on official records, their date of birth, and the address of the house the sheet is in. Then a line for the date the sheet was last checked and the initials of whoever checked it.

Print it. A file on a phone that is locked, flat or in another room is not an emergency sheet.

The people, in the order they should be called

Do not list six names alphabetically and hope. Number them, and write the order plainly: call 1 first, then 2, then 3.

For each person: name, relationship, the phone number they will actually answer, a second number, and one short note about availability — "works nights", "20 minutes away", "has a key". That note is what makes a stranger's decision easy.

Have at least one local name on the list. In practice, the neighbour with a key is more useful in the first hour than a daughter four hours away, and both should be on the sheet.

Say explicitly who holds a key and where a key safe is, if there is one, without printing the code on the sheet. Write "key safe by the back door — code held by [name], [number]".

If there is anyone who should not be called, or who has no authority to make decisions, do not write that on the fridge sheet. Handle it in the folder instead, and keep the public page purely operational.

• 1, 2, 3 — a numbered call order, not an alphabetical list
• Name, relationship, primary number, second number
• One availability note each: distance, working hours, has a key
• At least one local person and one out-of-area person
• Who holds keys, and where a key safe is — never the code itself
• Who is normally in the house, including any pets and who takes them

The professionals and the reference numbers

The second block is the one that saves the most phone time later. List the organisations, not just individual names, because individuals move on.

For each: organisation, the specific person if there is one, the phone number, the out-of-hours number if it differs, and the reference or patient number your parent is known by. Reference numbers are what turn a twenty-minute call into a two-minute one.

Include the doctor's practice, the pharmacy your parent actually uses, any hospital department currently involved, any care or support service that visits the house, and the personal alarm provider with the account number.

Add the insurance details exactly as they appear on the card — plan name, policy or member number, group number, and the number on the back of the card. Copy from the card; do not type from memory.

One line at the bottom of this block: "Full records are in the folder kept at [exact location]." A crew that knows the folder exists will take it, and everything else follows from there.

• Doctor's practice: name, address, phone, out-of-hours number
• Pharmacy: name, phone, and the account number if there is one
• Any hospital department currently involved, with the reference number
• Any service that visits the house, with the office and out-of-hours numbers
• Personal alarm provider and account number
• Insurance: plan, member number, group number, number on the back of the card
• Where the full folder is kept, in plain words

The facts a stranger needs in ten minutes

This is the block where the compliance rule bites hardest, and where the discipline is simple: you are copying an existing record, not writing a new one.

Copy the allergy line exactly as it appears in your parent's own records or on the most recent discharge letter. Copy the list of current medicines from the labels — name, strength and frequency exactly as printed. Copy any condition already recorded in those documents, in the same words the document uses.

Do not summarise, do not interpret, do not add your own view of how things are going. If you cannot find a document that states something, write "not recorded — ask the practice" and leave it.

Add the practical facts that a stranger cannot guess: whether your parent uses glasses, a hearing aid, dentures, a walking frame or a wheelchair; which language they are most comfortable in; whether they have a pacemaker or any implant recorded; and whether there is a formal document about their wishes and where it is kept. Do not describe what that document says — say where it is and who holds it.

Write the source and date beside the block: "copied from discharge letter, 14 March 2026".

Where the copies live

One sheet in one house is a single point of failure. Make six copies and place them deliberately.

The fridge front is the primary. Then: inside the front cover of the folder; in your parent's handbag or wallet, folded; in the glovebox of whichever car they travel in; with the neighbour who holds a key; and with whichever sibling or friend is second on the call list.

Keep a photograph of the current sheet on your own phone and in the shared folder, so you can read it out over the phone from anywhere.

Write the same version date on every copy. When you update, replace all of them and physically destroy the old ones — an out-of-date sheet on a fridge is worse than no sheet, because it will be believed.

If your parent spends time at a second address, a day service, or a family member's house, that place gets a copy too, with the address of that house in the header so nobody is confused about which home is being described.

• Fridge front, in a plastic wallet, where it cannot fall behind
• Inside the front cover of the folder
• Folded in the handbag or wallet
• Glovebox of the car
• The neighbour with the key
• The person second on the call list
• A photo on your phone and in the shared folder

Keeping it true

The sheet has one enemy: quiet drift. A number changes, a medicine changes, a neighbour moves, and nobody updates the page.

Write "Checked on ___ by ___" at the bottom and treat it as a rule: nobody trusts a sheet that has not been initialled in the last three months.

Check it on a fixed schedule — the same four dates as the rest of the folder review — and also after any of four events: a hospital stay, a change to the medicine list, a change of doctor or pharmacy, and any change in who is available to be called.

When you change it, change the version date, reprint every copy, and tell the people on the list that a new version exists. One message: "New sheet dated 12 August, the old one is out of date, please destroy it."

Keep a single master file so you are editing, not retyping. Retyping is how errors enter a document that people rely on.

Questions