Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

The Irish Association for Emergency Medicine (IAEM) has urged people to keep the name and telephone number of their next-of-kin on their mobile phone under the heading ICE (In Case of Emergency). The system, conceived in the UK, is now in use in a number of countries. The IAEM said all of its members have had the experience of seeing valuable time lost at a critical time as multiple attempts are made to contact the next-of-kin of a patient.

It is the view of the IAEM that the inclusion of emergency contact numbers under the name ICE in their mobile phone address book could prevent this. The option exists to list more than one emergency number e.g. ICE1, I! CE2 etc. Parents could ensure that their children’s mobile phone address books have similar inclusions.