What Should Be on Your Emergency Medical Supplies List?
You never know when you’ll next be in an emergency situation. It’s essential that you’re well-prepared with the right supplies in advance.
We have a wealth of experience when it comes to medical products, so you’re in the right place to find out what you should be putting on your emergency medical supplies list to ensure you’re not left short in a critical situation. Your survival is paramount.
We’re a leading healthcare supplier and have worked with UK hospitals, emergency services, British Red Cross, St John Ambulance, search and rescue teams, and the military for over twenty years. Our experience serving these sectors means that we also have the knowledge to advise professionals on what supplies they should be ensuring are on their emergency response equipment list to support their response and help save lives. When it comes to crisis situations, we know it’s essential to cover all bases, and you should too.
Keep reading to find out all about emergency medical supplies and everything you need to keep in your personal survival kit in the event of a crisis, as well as what medical supplies professional emergency response teams and medical staff rely on in the event of a serious emergency such as a terror attack, a fire, flood, or other natural disaster.
What essentials should be included in your emergency medical supplies list?
When it comes to medical gear, having a comprehensive first aid kit and a well-stocked burncare kit are non-negotiables in terms of your emergency medical supplies list. You should make sure you have medical equipment on hand to be able to treat yourself and others in the event of an injury.
You should also consider keeping other supplies on hand, including blizzard survival gear if there's any chance you'll be situated somewhere cold and remote. Alternatively, if you’re likely to be somewhere hot, humid, and tropical, stocking up on insect repellent, malaria tablets, hydration tablets, and water purification equipment is essential.
Practically speaking, keeping extra power supplies, spare phones, batteries, emergency lighting, hand-held torches, candles, and emergency contact numbers (written down as well as stored on your phone) is vital. Having a stash of warm and waterproof clothing, extra layers, spare bedding, blankets, toilet paper, hand sanitiser, and sturdy footwear is also important.
If you have a car, keep it stocked with a map, a battery-operated torch, jump leads, large bottles of drinking water, long-life, ready-to-eat food, a snow shovel, an ice scraper and de-icer, blankets, warm and waterproof clothing, a vehicle first aid kit, and a battery operated radio. Keep spare batteries in the glove box too.
Emergency First Aid Supplies from Steroplast
A comprehensive first aid kit that includes a range of medical supplies sufficient to treat a range of minor to major injuries, with enough quantities of items to last for multiple uses.
You may want to build your own first aid kit with a range of supplies specific to your own needs. Make sure to include a selection of premium quality bandages, adhesive dressings and non-adhesive dressings, plasters, wipes, gloves, safety pins, scissors, tweezers, adhesive tapes, and other practical first aid equipment. However, we recommend purchasing our best-selling 70 Piece First Aid Kit, which contains everything required to treat a range of injuries.
70 Piece First Aid Kit
This well-stocked, great-value first aid kit is easy to store and transport, making it the ideal solution for emergency preparedness. Its medical-grade contents include:
Burncare Kit
As well as a first aid kit, we advise keeping an emergency burn kit with your emergency medical supplies in the event of a burn or scald injury. Our Steroburn Burncare Kit includes Burnshield dressings and hydrogel sachets, which are proven to cool burn wounds faster than water to relieve pain and promote rapid healing. The Steroburn kit’s contents include:
Blizzard Survival Supplies from Steroplast
In the event that you live or will end up somewhere where temperatures are extremely cold, hypothermia poses a serious threat to your life. If your body temperature drops below 32°C, your health is at risk. Protect yourself and significantly increase your chances of survival with purpose-built blizzard survival gear developed by experts.
We’re proud to sell a range of premium quality cold-temperature survival equipment, including the Blizzard 2 Layer Active Range Survival Jacket and Blizzard 3 Layer Survival Bag, which are made from Reflexcell, a cellular network that traps in warm air to preserve your body temperature.
We also stock the EMS Blizzard Blanket that’s used by Emergency Services worldwide and the 2 Layer Compact Trauma Blanket, which is light and small-sized, making it ideal to store with the rest of your emergency medical supplies.
Practical Emergency Survival Supplies from Steroplast
We stock several important items that you’ll need to keep with you in an emergency.
While candles, torches and phones are useful, keeping emergency on-demand lighting like the Cyalume® 6" Snaplight Lightsticks, which will remain illuminated for up to 12 hours, is a great solution. They’ll store easily in your emergency supplies kit and light up within seconds. All you need to do is snap them between your hands to light up the area you're in.
Make sure you have a generous amount of any prescription medication you need to take regularly. Packing painkillers like Ibuprofen Tablets and Paracetamol Caplets is always a good idea too, and for anyone prone to allergies, especially in unexpected circumstances, it’s well worth stocking up on anti-allergy medication such as Loratadine Anti-Allergy Syrup or Piriton Allergy Tablets.
While we strongly recommend stocking up on large amounts of drinking water ready to take with you in an emergency, you never know if you’ll end up suffering from dehydration in an emergency. Packing some Dioralyte Rehydration Sachets or Oral Rehydration Salts into your emergency supplies is a practical and safe option.
Your Personal Emergency Medical Supplies List
Ensuring you’re emergency-ready is essential. Make sure you have everything you need ready to go in advance.
We’ve put together this personal emergency supplies checklist which you can download as a PDF so you can ensure you’re prepared. Here's what to have ready.
Protect your business
Bridge the Care Gap with Public Access Trauma Kits
Steroplast, CityCo, and Manchester City Council have distributed 180+ PAcT Kits across Manchester to bridge the critical care gap. In emergencies, these kits provide essential supplies to manage severe bleeding until paramedics arrive. Learn how to equip your venue and ensure you're prepared.
The Importance of Quality Emergency Response Equipment for Professionals
In the event of a crisis, whether it’s a house fire, a sudden flood, terror attack, gas explosion, car crash, or other serious emergency that requires a coordinated response, it’s imperative that trained professionals and emergency responders are equipped with everything they need, planned out in advance on a complete emergency response equipment list.
We are proud to have been supplying UK hospitals and emergency services with many of the supplies and pieces of equipment that feature on a comprehensive emergency response equipment list, helping to stablise casulaties in emergency situations and ultimately save lives.
Emergency Response Medical Kits for Paramedics and Rescue Teams
Paramedics and emergency responders attending the scene of a crisis will have a range of specialist equipment on hand specific to their training, setup, and requirements. We have been supplying response teams with premium emergency supplies for decades and are proud to stock a range of specialist kits for emergency responders. Browse our range of professional-quality kits and bags below:
Complete First Responder Kits from Steroplast
A carefully-designed tactical first aid kit developed for professionals. Made for fast, easy emergency use, this kit contains everything on an emergency response equipment list that’s required for a quick and effective response in a crisis. Contents include all essential first aid supplies, including tuff cut scissors, and a resusciade and a clinical waste bag to minimise the risk of cross-contamination.
A professional-grade, easily portable Burnshield kit has been specially developed for ambulance and fire service team members tasked with treating burn victims at the scene of an emergency. This comprehensive burncare kit is well-stocked with Burnshield hydrogel and a range of sizes of hydrogel burn dressings for treating superficial, partial and full-thickness burns on multiple casualties at the scene.
A burncare kit developed for emergency situations, this Burnshield kit comes complete with a choice of burn dressings and Burnshield hydrogel, as well as wound dressings and tapes to protect burn wounds and promote faster healing. Ideal for storing in an emergency vehicle for complete preparedness.
Professional Equipment WaterStop Carry Bags from Steroplast
Many paramedics and emergency responders work with specialist gear, including bleed control and trauma supplies, airway management apparatus and advanced life support equipment, which need to be carried and handled with extreme care to ensure they are protected until they reach the casualty safely.
We stock a range of highly visible, extremely durable Teflon WaterStop bags that are built to withstand almost anything. They're used by paramedics across the country and are relied on for their quality and high performance. Professionals can consolidate everything on their emergency response equipment list and put it all in their WaterStop bag so it’s safely in one place, ready to go. Browse our range here.
A Professional Emergency Response Equipment List For Medical Facilities And Emergency Teams
Equipment Type: | |
Purpose: | Crisis situations often result in multiple critically injured casualties with major injuries. Response teams need to be equipped with high-grade fast-acting trauma supplies that can control heaving bleeding rapidly to help preserve life. Specialist bleed control kits and haemostatic trauma products are developed to cater to severely injured casualties to it’s essential that these items feature on an emergency response equipment list. |
Items: |
Equipment Type: | |
Purpose: | In the event of a sudden cardiac arrest, a casualty's chance of survival decreases significantly with every second of delay. Only a defibrillator can save their life. It’s vital that emergency response teams are equipped with a professional-grade automated external defibrillator to be able to intervene and provide effective defibrillation along with emergency CPR to be able to save a life. All ambulances, emergency response vehicles, and trauma centres should keep a fully-charged AED on hand, and first response teams must be trained in defibrillation as standard. |
Items: |
Equipment Type: | |
Purpose: | Airway management equipment is vital for establishing, maintaining and protecting a casualty’s airway to ensure they can breathe effectively. In emergency situations, airway management procedures are critical for resuscitating casualties and ensuring they remain stable during transfer to hospital. A range of devices and tools may be required, so ambulances and kits should be equipped with a selection of airway devices to ensure teams can adapt to the needs of their patients rapidly. |
Items: |
Equipment Type: | |
Purpose: | Treating casualties with minor, major, or critical injuries with the right supplies is essential. Response teams need to ensure they have access to a range of quality medical products that offer them a choice of solutions to provide rapid, effective treatment for their patients, so they can provide relief as quickly and as safely as possible in an emergency. An ambulance, paramedic kit, first response kit, or medical facility must ensure they include these first aid items on their emergency response equipment list. |
Items: |
Equipment Type: | |
Purpose: | In order to effectively triage casualties and correctly diagnose patients in emergency situations to be able to provide the right treatments, having access to diagnostic equipment is essential. Diagnostic tools are also important in monitoring a casualty’s health and stability during treatment and transfer, for example, ensuring their heart rate or oxygen levels aren’t dropping dangerously low. Emergency medical staff must have access to diagnostic equipment to be able to do their jobs effectively. |
Items: |
|
Equipment Type: | |
Purpose: | It’s essential that casualties can be lifted, carried, and transferred from the ground, beds, and in and out of vehicles or buildings safely, quickly and easily in emergency situations. It’s also important that transfer and evacuation equipment is comfortable and safe for patients and for the staff using it. Ensuring the emergency response teams are equipped with a choice of transfer equipment, including stretchers, boards, sheets, and immobilisation equipment such as cuffs and splints so they can adapt to the needs of the casualties they are treating is essential. |
Items: |
|
Equipment Type: | |
Purpose: | Preventing and controlling the spread of infection must remain a priority, even in an emergency. Emergency response staff must have the supplies in place to protect themselves and their patients from cross-contamination, including anti-bacterial solutions to limit the change of infection during treatment, as well as PPE, and surface wipes and disinfectants to keep surrounding areas and equipment as clean as possible. |
Items: |
Equipment Type: | |
Purpose: | Crisis situations often result in multiple critically injured casualties with major injuries. Response teams need to be equipped with high-grade fast-acting trauma supplies that can control heaving bleeding rapidly to help preserve life. Specialist bleed control kits and haemostatic trauma products are developed to cater to severely injured casualties to it’s essential that these items feature on an emergency response equipment list. |
Items: |
Equipment Type: | |
Purpose: | In the event of a sudden cardiac arrest, a casualty's chance of survival decreases significantly with every second of delay. Only a defibrillator can save their life. It’s vital that emergency response teams are equipped with a professional-grade automated external defibrillator to be able to intervene and provide effective defibrillation along with emergency CPR to be able to save a life. All ambulances, emergency response vehicles, and trauma centres should keep a fully-charged AED on hand, and first response teams must be trained in defibrillation as standard. |
Items: |
Equipment Type: | |
Purpose: | Airway management equipment is vital for establishing, maintaining and protecting a casualty’s airway to ensure they can breathe effectively. In emergency situations, airway management procedures are critical for resuscitating casualties and ensuring they remain stable during transfer to hospital. A range of devices and tools may be required, so ambulances and kits should be equipped with a selection of airway devices to ensure teams can adapt to the needs of their patients rapidly. |
Items: |
Equipment Type: | |
Purpose: | Treating casualties with minor, major, or critical injuries with the right supplies is essential. Response teams need to ensure they have access to a range of quality medical products that offer them a choice of solutions to provide rapid, effective treatment for their patients, so they can provide relief as quickly and as safely as possible in an emergency. An ambulance, paramedic kit, first response kit, or medical facility must ensure they include these first aid items on their emergency response equipment list. |
Items: |
Equipment Type: | |
Purpose: | In order to effectively triage casualties and correctly diagnose patients in emergency situations to be able to provide the right treatments, having access to diagnostic equipment is essential. Diagnostic tools are also important in monitoring a casualty’s health and stability during treatment and transfer, for example, ensuring their heart rate or oxygen levels aren’t dropping dangerously low. Emergency medical staff must have access to diagnostic equipment to be able to do their jobs effectively. |
Items: |
|
Equipment Type: | |
Purpose: | It’s essential that casualties can be lifted, carried, and transferred from the ground, beds, and in and out of vehicles or buildings safely, quickly and easily in emergency situations. It’s also important that transfer and evacuation equipment is comfortable and safe for patients and for the staff using it. Ensuring the emergency response teams are equipped with a choice of transfer equipment, including stretchers, boards, sheets, and immobilisation equipment such as cuffs and splints so they can adapt to the needs of the casualties they are treating is essential. |
Items: |
|
Equipment Type: | |
Purpose: | Preventing and controlling the spread of infection must remain a priority, even in an emergency. Emergency response staff must have the supplies in place to protect themselves and their patients from cross-contamination, including anti-bacterial solutions to limit the change of infection during treatment, as well as PPE, and surface wipes and disinfectants to keep surrounding areas and equipment as clean as possible. |
Items: |
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