Bottle in the Fridge – emergency information scheme

The Message in a Bottle scheme helps you store your personal and medical information in your fridge door, so it can found quickly by emergency services. This simple idea could help to save your life.

The little green bottle means you can give the emergency services your important medical information and contact details, if you have an accident or sudden illness at home.

The fridge has been chosen to store the bottles as most people have one and it’s easy to find. The insulation properties and construction of a fridge mean that in the event of a fire, the contents of the fridge usually survive.


Who can use the scheme

The Message in a bottle scheme is for anyone. It is particularly useful to people who may not be able to tell emergency services their health information. For example, people with learning disabilities, memory problems or dementia or people who speak English as a second or other language.


What’s in the bottle

You are given a pack which contains:

  • a plastic green and white bottle
  • a basic medical information form
  • green and white emergency data link stickers, which are unique to the scheme

How to use the scheme

  1. Complete the medical information form and put it in the bottle.

2. Make sure you include: your medical information/conditions, 2 emergency contact details, allergies, and current medications/repeat prescriptions. If you are a carer, include the details of the person you care for.

3. Then put the bottle in your fridge. Ideally in the door, where it can be seen easily.

4. Put one sticker inside your front door, so it’s clearly visible to any of the emergency services.

5. Put the other sticker on your fridge or on your back door. The green and white stickers are recognised by the emergency services.

6. Don’t put a sticker on the outside of your property. The emergency services will know to look for one inside your front door.

7. If more than one person in your house has a bottle, attach a photograph to your medical form, so that the emergency services can easily identify which bottle belongs to you.


Where to get a bottle

North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) give the bottles out free of charge at events and through partners such as GP Surgeries.

Caring Hands give bottle packs to statutory and voluntary groups in Newcastle. The bottle packs are for people aged over 50 years old who live in their own homes and may be in ill health.


Other useful information

  • LifeBook – Age UK free resource. It can be easy to mislay important documents and information. Record your details from, who insures your car, to where you put the TV licence. The LifeBook can help you to be more organised  and could be invaluable to a family member or a friend if they need to locate important information about you in an emergency.

Last updated: April 21, 2023