There is no universal “MHRA-approved household emergency medicine list”: the MHRA regulates medicines, packaging, labels and patient leaflets, while NHS guidance identifies useful categories for a home medicine cupboard. Every medicine must still be checked against the user’s age, conditions, allergies, pregnancy status and other medicines; the packet and leaflet remain the controlling instructions.[1][2]
For a rural Cumbria household, build for seven days of winter self-sufficiency, while recognising that the British Red Cross baseline is three days and GOV.UK advises supplies for an emergency lasting several days. Seven days is a prudent rural planning target—not an NHS or MHRA rule—because snow, blocked roads, power loss and pharmacy closures can overlap.[3][4][5]
Never give a dog—or any pet—a human painkiller unless a vet has specifically prescribed that exact medicine and dose. Ibuprofen and naproxen are highly toxic to animals; if a pet swallows any human painkiller, contact a vet immediately and keep the packaging.[6][7][8]
Ask a community pharmacist to review this module once against the actual household. Keep medicines in original packaging with leaflets, record allergies and regular prescriptions on a paper card, and buy normal retail packs rather than stockpiling. NHS guidance supports the core categories below, while emphasising expiry checks, secure storage and label compliance.[9][10][1]
| Item | Why keep it | Main safeguards |
|---|---|---|
| Paracetamol | First-line option for common pain and fever | Do not combine it with cold/flu products, co-codamol or anything else containing paracetamol. It may be unsuitable with liver or kidney disease or heavy alcohol use. Follow the pack; suspected excess needs urgent medical advice even if the person initially feels well.[11][12][13] |
| Ibuprofen (optional) | Pain, fever and inflammation where suitable | Try paracetamol first if appropriate. Avoid or obtain professional advice with previous stomach ulcers, asthma/NSAID reactions, heart, liver or kidney disease, clotting problems, anticoagulants, stroke, or pregnancy. Never combine with another NSAID such as naproxen or pain-relief aspirin.[14] |
| Cetirizine or another pharmacist-selected antihistamine | Minor allergic symptoms and itchy bites | Even “non-drowsy” cetirizine can cause sleepiness; do not drive or use tools if affected. Kidney failure, epilepsy/seizure risk and urinary difficulty require advice.[15][16] |
| Oral rehydration salts | Replace water and salts lost through vomiting, diarrhoea or fever | They support rehydration but do not treat the underlying cause. Mix exactly as the packet directs; seek advice promptly for vulnerable people or significant dehydration.[1][10] |
| Loperamide (adults/age 12+ only unless prescribed) | Short-term control of uncomplicated diarrhoea | Do not use for diarrhoea after antibiotics, inflammatory-bowel flare, constipation or a swollen abdomen; seek advice for blood in stools with fever, symptoms beyond 48 hours, liver problems or pregnancy. Never exceed the pack dose.[17][18] |
| Antacid/indigestion remedy | Short-term heartburn or indigestion relief | Ask the pharmacist to select a product compatible with regular medicines and follow spacing instructions on its leaflet. NHS winter medicine-cupboard guidance includes antacids.[19][1] |
| Saline nasal spray | Non-drug relief of nasal congestion/dryness | A lower-risk alternative to multi-ingredient cold products. Decongestants have important restrictions, including high blood pressure, diabetes, heart/circulation problems, glaucoma, pregnancy and some medicines; nasal decongestants should be short term only.[19][20] |
| Hydrocortisone 1% cream (optional) | Short courses for suitable itchy inflammatory rashes or insect-bite reactions | Do not use on cuts/wounds, infected skin, or sensitive areas without advice; do not cover with a dressing. Most OTC use is for adults and children 10+, and NHS advice limits self-treatment to seven days unless a clinician says otherwise.[21] |
Avoid making multi-symptom cold-and-flu sachets the default: many contain paracetamol, making accidental duplication easier. If kept, mark the active ingredients prominently and store them beside—not separately from—the paracetamol stock.[11][22]
Do not add leftover antibiotics, sedatives, prescription-strength painkillers or “just in case” medicines prescribed to somebody else. Keep each person’s regular prescriptions separately labelled and maintain enough to cover several days; if a medicine requires refrigeration or powered equipment, agree a written outage plan with the pharmacist, GP and electricity network.[23][3]
Keep waterproof plasters, sterile dressings, bandages, medical tape, disposable gloves, antiseptic or cleansing wipes, eyewash, tweezers, scissors and a digital thermometer. Add a foil blanket, instant cold pack and a printed first-aid guide; torches are safer than candles during an outage.[24][3]
Store the human medicines in a locked, cool, dry place, out of sight and reach of children and pets—not in a damp bathroom, freezing outbuilding or hot vehicle. Review the box every March and September, return expired medicines to a pharmacy, replenish used items and check that leaflets remain present.[10][23][9]
The practical priority order is warmth, water, essential medicine, communications, food, light and sanitation. GOV.UK suggests 2.5–3 litres of drinking water per person per day as a survival minimum and about 10 litres per person per day for more comfortable drinking, basic cooking and hygiene; add water for pets and medical needs.[3]
| Module | Seven-day rural target |
|---|---|
| Water | At least 21 litres of drinking water per person, with additional stored water or a safe contingency for cooking and hygiene; include pet water. Rotate stocks. |
| Food | Seven days of familiar, ready-to-eat or low-cook food, manual tin opener, pet food and any dietary/infant supplies. |
| Warmth | Layered clothing, hats, gloves, insulated blankets/sleeping bags, hot-water bottles, draught control and one designated warm room. Aim for at least 18°C in regularly used rooms where possible, especially for vulnerable people.[25][26] |
| Light and power | LED head torches and torches, spare batteries, two charged power banks, 12 V car charging lead and battery/wind-up radio. Keep lighting where it can be found in darkness.[3][27] |
| Communications | Printed contacts, local radio frequencies, household rendezvous plan and a neighbour check-in arrangement. Record 105 for electricity outages in Great Britain.[27][28] |
| Home resilience | Smoke and CO alarms, fire blanket/extinguisher suited to the home, snow shovel, grit, insulated pipes, known stopcock/fuse-board locations, spare keys and some cash. |
| Car | Warm clothes, blanket, boots, torch, high-visibility layer, shovel, scraper/de-icer, food, water, first-aid kit, paper map, jump leads and charger. If stranded in snow, stay with the vehicle and ensure its exhaust is not blocked before briefly running the engine.[3][5] |
Before forecast snow, charge every device, top up prescriptions and fuel, bring vulnerable livestock/pet plans up to date, check heating, and agree daily contact with nearby households. Westmorland and Furness advice similarly stresses charged phones, tested torch/radio batteries, vulnerable-neighbour checks, car essentials and avoiding unnecessary travel.[28]
Anyone dependent on electrically powered medical equipment should join the electricity supplier or network operator’s Priority Services Register and have a clinician-approved backup-power or relocation plan. Do not assume registration guarantees uninterrupted power.[4][26]
A generator, charcoal barbecue or camping stove must never be used inside the house, conservatory, tent, cellar, attached garage or other enclosed or partly enclosed space. HSE says petrol generators should be outside in a well-ventilated location where exhaust cannot collect or drift into openings; a CO alarm is an additional warning layer, not permission to operate combustion equipment indoors.[29][30]
A charcoal barbecue can keep producing carbon monoxide for hours after flames appear extinguished. Keep lit, smouldering and cooling charcoal outdoors and well away from doors, windows, vents and sleeping areas; never bring it inside for heat.[31][32]
Use audible CO alarms compliant with BS EN 50291, place and maintain them according to the manufacturer’s instructions, test them regularly, and have fuel-burning appliances and flues serviced by competent professionals. HSE and UK government guidance identify generators, BBQs and poorly installed or ventilated appliances as CO sources.[33][29]
Possible CO poisoning can resemble flu: headache, nausea, dizziness, breathlessness, weakness, confusion, collapse or loss of consciousness. Stop the suspected source only if safe, get everyone into fresh air, call 999 for severe symptoms or collapse, seek medical advice, and do not re-enter until professionals say it is safe; the National Gas Emergency Service is 0800 111 999.[34][33]
EMP risk should not displace preparation for the much more probable consequences of storms, ordinary outages, telecoms failure, cyberattack, fire or flood. The UK National Risk Register treats severe space weather as a serious hazard whose reasonable worst case could last one to two weeks and disrupt regional power, satellite/GPS services, some telecommunications and possibly ground-based digital components.[35][36]
Solar/geomagnetic disruption and a fast nuclear high-altitude EMP are not interchangeable threats. At household level, the useful common response is resilience to lost power and communications: paper records, offline data, radios, charged batteries, surge-aware electrical practice and the ability to operate manually.
A Faraday enclosure is real engineering, but “a metallic pouch” is not automatically EMP protection. Effective shielding depends on a continuous conductive enclosure, sound seams and apertures, and filtered cable penetrations; ordinary phone-signal blocking demonstrates attenuation only at the tested radio bands, not survival across an unspecified EMP waveform.[37]
Use a small waterproof, fire-resistant document wallet as the primary offline-document bag, containing:
NCSC recommends the 3-2-1 pattern—at least three copies on two devices with one offsite—plus at least one digitally disconnected backup and regular restore testing. NCSC also recognises secured paper information and manual processes as valid resilience measures.[38][39][40]
A Faraday pouch is optional defence in depth, not the document strategy. If the budget allows, place a duplicate encrypted USB drive, a basic offline-capable phone or e-reader, the necessary cables/adapters and a compatible power bank inside a reputable pouch whose manufacturer publishes independent shielding test data; keep the items insulated from conductive surfaces, seal the pouch correctly and periodically test signal isolation. Even then, retain paper because protected data is useless without a working reader, battery and remembered decryption method.
Do not keep the only copies in the pouch. Faraday material does not inherently provide fire, flood, theft or data-integrity protection, and repeated folding or seal wear can degrade shielding; the higher-value investment is duplicate media, waterproof paper, encryption, offsite separation and tested restoration.[39][41]
For immediate human medical danger call 999; for urgent problems when unsure what to do, use NHS 111. For a power cut call 105; for suspected gas/CO danger leave the property and call 0800 111 999 from fresh air.[27][25][33]