What should you keep in a basic home first aid kit?

One box, sorted once, ready on the day you need it.

The answer in 2 lines. A basic home kit lets you take a temperature, clean and cover a small wound, and ease pain or a fever with a medicine your pharmacist has recommended for each person in your home. Add a card with the numbers to call. Keep the kit somewhere cool and dry, high up and out of children's reach. The bathroom is not a good place for it. Go through it every 6 to 12 months and take out-of-date medicines back to a pharmacy. If a child swallows medicine, call 999 or go to A&E. If you are not sure whether it is harmful, call 111.

The 3 steps to put it together

Start from the list below and ask a pharmacist to adapt it to your household: a baby, an older person, allergies or a long-term condition. To find one, use the NHS pharmacy finder: enter your postcode, then check the opening times before you go.
Keep each medicine in its original box with its leaflet, and write the date you opened it on bottles and drops.
Tape a card inside the lid with 999, 111, your GP surgery's number and your nearest pharmacy.

Stop: danger

A child has swallowed a medicine or got into the kit: the NHS says to call 999 or go to A&E if you think they have swallowed something harmful, and to call 111 if you are not sure. Do not make them sick and do not give them anything to eat or drink. Take the box or packaging with you. Do not drive yourself to A&E: ask someone else to drive or call 999.
Someone is unconscious, not breathing properly or having a fit: call 999 straight away.
Heavy bleeding, a large burn, a deep wound or bite, or an object stuck in a wound: a home kit is not enough. Call 999 or go to A&E.

The basic list

For	What
Checking	A digital thermometer
Cleaning a wound	Alcohol-free cleansing wipes, sterile gauze dressings in several sizes, eyewash or sterile eye dressings
Covering	Plasters in several sizes, sticky tape, a crêpe roller bandage, a triangular bandage (to make a sling), safety pins, disposable gloves
Small jobs	Scissors and tweezers
Easing symptoms	Pain and fever relief your pharmacist has recommended for each person, plus any other medicines they suggest for your household (for example antihistamine or oral rehydration salts), each with its leaflet
Emergencies	The card with 999, 111, your GP and your pharmacy

There is no single official list: this one reflects advice from St John Ambulance and local NHS services. It gives no doses. Always follow the leaflet and your pharmacist's advice.

Where to keep it

Out of children's reach and sight: high up, ideally in a cupboard that locks.
Cool and dry: heat and steam can damage medicines, so the bathroom is a poor choice.
Medicines that need to go in the fridge (the box says so) stay in the fridge, in a closed container.
Everyone in the house, including a babysitter, should know where the kit is.

What not to do

Keeping the rest of a prescribed course (antibiotics, for example) "for next time": it may not suit another illness or another person.
Giving aspirin to anyone under 16 unless a doctor has prescribed it.
Giving children adult medicines, or any medicine without checking the age on the leaflet: ask your pharmacist.

Check it every 6 to 12 months

Take out-of-date or unwanted medicines to any community pharmacy in England for safe disposal. Do not flush them or put them in the bin.
Throw away opened bottles and drops that are older than the leaflet allows.
Replace dressings and plasters whose packets are open or damaged, and check the thermometer battery.

Useful numbers in England

999: life-threatening emergency.
111: NHS 111, when you need help urgently but it is not an emergency, or you are not sure whether something is harmful. You can also call 111 to find a pharmacy.
Your pharmacist: free advice on what to stock and on any medicine. To find an open pharmacy, use the NHS pharmacy finder: enter your postcode and filter by opening hours.
Your GP surgery: for anything to do with a long-term condition or repeat prescriptions.

999 works throughout the UK. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their own NHS services, so check their local advice lines.

Good to know

Going abroad? Ask your pharmacist to help you make up a travel kit for your destination, and keep medicines in their original boxes.
A first aid course helps you use the kit properly. St John Ambulance runs courses and publishes its own list of kit contents.
If someone has a cut, burn or rash and you are not sure what to do, your pharmacist is a good first stop.

One Saturday in Nottingham, Priya sorts the family first aid kit. She takes two out-of-date boxes and the rest of an old antibiotic course back to the pharmacy, where the pharmacist suggests a children's pain reliever for her four-year-old. She buys fresh plasters and a triangular bandage, tapes the emergency card inside the lid, and puts the box on the top shelf of the hall cupboard.

A made-up story, for illustration.

Bobby

Sources, verification, confidence

Verified on 6 November 2026, for England. Confidence: high for the emergency steps (999, 111, poisoning advice), for storage and for returning medicines to a pharmacy; medium for the list of contents: there is no single official list, so this one should be adapted by your pharmacist. This guide gives no medicine doses.