I WRITE with a keen interest with regard to an initiative that has recently been commenced by the Paramedic Service around the UK. This initiative is called I.C.E (in case of emergency). It relates to next of kin being contacted by the paramedics, polic

I WRITE with a keen interest with regard to an initiative that has recently been commenced by the Paramedic Service around the UK.

This initiative is called I.C.E (in case of emergency).

It relates to next of kin being contacted by the paramedics, police, or in health care settings such as hospitals and GP services if something should happen to an individual, such as being involved in an accident, being injured, or in need of medical attention.

In today's society, there are not many who do not own a mobile phone, and with an increasing number of children owning such devices also, and taking into consideration the amount of phone numbers we keep in our mobile phone contacts list it is not surprising that if you were to be involved in an emergency, that it could be difficult for the emergency services to contact family or friends to inform them of any incident that had occurred.

Also, if the incident you were unfortunate enough to be involved in was serious enough that you were unable to tell the emergency services who you wanted to be contacted, how would health professionals know who to contact, in what priority order, and what name their number has been stored under ?

The simple suggested solution is to store emergency contact phone numbers in your mobile phone address book as ICE 1, ICE 2, ICE 3 etc, in the priority order you want family or friends to be contacted should you be involved in an accident, or be injured.

All to often as an accident and emergency nurse myself, there have been many occasions when as health care professionals we have struggled to contact next of kin, family or friends, to gain vital information in an emergency situation, this idea: I.C.E, on mobile phones has to be brought to the attention of the general public with a pro-active angle.

LISA OWEN

March