When you need one you need it fast and remember you might need two. Make sure at least one is out of the packet, unrolled and set up ready to go. Also check the latest guidance on tourniquet position: where the first tourniquet is sited just above the source of the bleeding with the aim of saving as much tissue as possible.

Ideally a cotton one. There’s literally 101 things you can do with a triangular bandage and one day we’ll write a blog, if not a book about it! Triangular bandages are incredibly versatile and with a bit of creativity can morph into pretty much anything you need in a medical kit from slings and immobilisation, wound packing and pressure dressings.

Fabulous for keeping burns clean and protected. But also useful for covering any kind of open wound, forming a seal for a BVM on a more hirsute patient, or (God forbid!), to cover someone’s giblets that have ended up on the outside!

For those sucking chest wound kind of days. 

Small and less sizes to carry than for an Oropharyngeal Airway. 

Suggestions included clear tape and a firm favourite was good old Duct Tape. Used to secure dressings, act as steristrips, for binding, splinting, a makeshift chest seal and for blisters. If you tape it sticky side out around your calves, they’ll apparently stop ticks in their tracks. Non medical uses include patching up tents or survival blankets, sealing food containers, and repairing inflatable items such as boats.

We think this is the ‘big daddy’ of the bandage world because it really does seem to do everything! From a detachable eye cup, to packing wounds and getting really good pressure on, the Olaes is your guy. And, it’s even great for neck wounds using a diagonal application with the opposite arm up. Just bring that arm down when you’ve finished for even more pressure right where it needs to be. Check out the video below.

My anaesthetist friend reckons that all of medicine can be distilled down to ‘putting tubes inside other tubes.’ I’m not sure I’d go that far, but if you’re only going to carry one tube, then an 18 Ch Foley catheter seems like a good option. It’s particularly important on expeditions with older men, or offshore where some sea sickness medicines can cause urinary retention. 

It could be used as an improvised option for various other ‘tube in a tube’ scenarios, and for things like balloon tamponade in epistaxis (nose bleeds!), penetrating neck trauma, obstetric haemorrhage etc.

Everyone loves a SAM splint. So what’s better than a SAM splint? Two SAM splints!

This could allow for much better stabilisation of certain injuries, and if you only need one you can annoy everyone by using the second to improvise a cervical collar.

One thing you can’t improvise is medications. 1:1000 Adrenaline is obligatory for anaphylaxis, very cool for the ‘dirty adrenaline’ technique and great for treating epistaxis (nose bleeds).  Check out this video.

The local anaesthetic Lidocaine just makes everything easier. Local infiltration is obviously helpful for suturing but I particularly like ring blocks for managing mashed up fingers. Haematoma blocks, intra-articular use and eye anaesthesia all nice options to have too.

Cyanoacrylate superglue - you can pay more for the medical stuff (which is a bit more flexible when set) or just use B&Q’s finest! Glue works well alone for small wounds and I like it for injuries involving fingernails/toenails, where it can almost eliminate pain and restore function to damaged digits. It’s also an option to inject into ultramarathoners’ blisters (if they’re feeling brave) and in combination with knotted hair for closing up head wounds. However it can be difficult to set in hotter climates.

 I think kinesthesia tape is the best option out there for managing blisters. Apply it neatly and it just works, really well, and doesn’t pull slabs of skin off like Compeed can. The Spine Race medics use K-tape almost exclusively for foot care, and some of the foot reconstruction they manage is genuine artwork. There are plenty of videos on You Tube advising on taping for blisters and the one below is a general buyers guide

I reattached somebody’s dental crown in Antarctica using toothpaste as glue, and was pretty amazed that it held up for another five weeks. I’d much rather have had some proper dental glue though. 

Light to carry, easy to apply, reassuring to have. A cool way to get pressure onto a wound and keep it on. This video shows how to use it.

 I’ve had to improvise slings from jumpers and other items a few times and have always found it surprisingly tricky to make something truly functional. It’s so much easier just to pin the casualty’s sleeve where you want it. Safety pins have lots of other uses too, including pinning the tongue out as an airway ‘adjunct’ if the patient is (hopefully) unconscious. (I really hope I never have to do this!).

This is valuable as a broad-spectrum antibiotic option for treating all sorts of infections. Whether it’s gastrointestinal, urinary tract, skin, respiratory tract - it’s good for all. Even for Anthrax too, if things get exciting. There aren’t many drugs with a BNF dosage recommendation for ‘most other infections’.