The Emergency Doctors Bag
What drugs should I carry or have accessible?
- GPs must be able to defend themselves on grounds of good clinical practice.
- Different practices operate in different settings with different resources around them i.e. a GP practising in a remote rural setting will have different considerations from one close to a hospital.
There is no specific guidance in relation as to which drugs to carry. However, there are some guides that you could draw on e.g.
- CQC GP Mythbuster 9 : Emergency medicines for GP practices
- GP notebook emergency bag guide
- Drugs and Therapeutics Bulletin - Drugs for the doctor's bag: Adults
- Drugs and Therapeutics Bulletin - Drugs for the doctor's bag: Children
You should have access* to urgent treatment for emergencies that you may come across where treatments have a time dependent element for life-saving purposes.
e.g.
- aspirin for an MI
- adrenaline for anaphylaxis
- benzylpenicillin for meningitis
*The definition of appropriate access will depend on the set up and location of your surgery. Practice may vary from each doctor having their own personal emergency drug bag or a designated emergency drug store/bag being available in the surgery.
We suggest that each practice should meet, look at the available advice and decide a policy for what treatments are available and how they are available (personal bag, practice cupboard, practice emergency bag) and base that decision on their unique practice circumstances. For good practice they should document their decision.
