How would emergency services find my next of kin?

[kingat]

Does anyone know? Say I get run over by a bus, my phone is locked, how do they find someone to call? Or if a child is in accident, how do they find parents?

Just in case no one else has mentioned it, I think it is usual to put ICE into your phone numbers (in case of emergency), so that anyone could find your key contact if that was necessary.

I cant find it on Samsung phone

I have saved my phone number on ds phone with call in emergency. You can add notes to your lock screen on phone its only small also do it on mine with my mums number on. Just idea if any1 needs it. Also handy for lost phones that's how I knew about it after finding a phone once.

How do I put ICE on my Samsung phone?
On the lock screen on the Android phone, swipe up to display the unlock screen and tap on EMERGENCY CALL. At the top, tap the + button and select the contacts, along with the specified number, that you want displayed along top of the screen. The selected contacts will now be displayed and can be dialled directly.
martinshelpdesk.com/ice/

When my godmother was taken to hospital unconscious they looked on her Donor card which had my parents listed as emergency contacts on it (it may have been an old one, so I don't know whether they still have a space for that). There was no point looking on her phone as she only had numbers in the phone, no names attached to them.

We had a colleague suffer a heart attack at work. He sadly died on the way to hospital. His next of kin information was not up to date, so not only did his ex wife of 7 years get the call, she also got a £70k life insurance payout rather than his new wife and 4 year old son.
Make sure your work know who to contact incase you take ill at, to or from your place of work.

Yep police can do it relatively quickly if nhs records don’t already hold NOK.

so not only did his ex wife of 7 years get the call, she also got a £70k life insurance payout rather than his new wife and 4 year old son

The payout wouldn’t just be given to whoever is thought to be next of kin. More likely his ex was still named as beneficiary and he hadn’t updated it when he remarried.

There are legal processes with regard to probate, wills and inheritance, an ex wife would have no legal right unless specifically named

@kingat

I cant find it on Samsung phone

As well as the Emergency Call function on Samsung that a pp has written out above, you go: Settings > Lock screen and security > clock face and widgets. There should then be a contact information option, that you can fill in and set as lock screen and always on display.

I have my clear parkrun barcode slid into the back of my clear phone case. It has my ICE on that.
My kids always think I'm daft for taking my organ donor card if I go for a run.

@BatleyTownswomensGuild

I also have ICE and medical info saved on my phone.

Can be accessed off the front screen of an Iphone without needing to enter password. See photo

I always thought the emergency button was for emergency services! You learn a new thing every day, thank you 😊

small parkrun barcode.

I used to work in A&E before smart phones were so widely used. If we had a Jane/John Doe, we called the local police station to inform them, who presumably put a notice out for the local area.

If a school, care home etc was missing someone, they would usually call the hospital and/or the police station.

Ideally keep ID or contact details on you or in your kids school bags though.

My phone is an Android and in settings there is a way to enter this info so that if you're ever in an accident, the emergency services can access it without needing to unlock your phone.

If you click the emergency call button on my lock screen it gives an option to view emergency information and it has my parents and my husband's details in there. No need to unlock anything.

You can put VIP next to the numbers of nok

I don't have a passcode/word on my phone so you can get on to it and look at my contacts but I have pass codes on my apps so they can't be accessed by anyone other than me

You can buy an ice id bracelet

iceid.co.uk/running-id/

ICE numbers or a note on your lock screen. My lock screen says "if found please call" and DP's number, but obviously this could work if I was in an accident too.

When I was a teenager (pre-smartphone) I carried a card in my purse with my info, medical conditions and parents' contact details. Could do this for DC.

Names on bank cards etc can be matched up with NOK on hospital systems if you've been there before.

As you say, if they can't identify you, they can eventually match you up to missing person reports as long (as someone reports you missing)

@kingat on a samsung, go into contacts, then tap "groups" in the right hand corner, tap on the "emergency contacts" group and add any contacts you want to include in there

@HolyMerlot

iPhones have a Medical ID section under the 'Emergency' tab on the passcode screen which can be accessed without the need to know the passcode.

If you fill out your Medical ID on your phone you can put down emergency contact names, numbers and their relation to you (as well as your blood group, allergies etc etc)

Seconding this. I work for the ambulance service and have used this a few times, it’s really helpful to have an emergency contact we can call. Apart from that we’ll look through people’s wallets/purses/handbags/pockets to try and find some ID and any medical info.

When my brother recently unexpectedly died we were contacted via a genealogy firm the NHS use. Sadly this was several weeks after his death despite having contact info for next of kin on his person and phone and medical records. Nobody checked them.

A relative of mine went shopping. He didn't come back home. 3 days later his mum rang the police, they didn't know anything. She rang local hospitals and found him there with serious head trauma. He died a couple of weeks later. She had to go lookingfor him,

At the risk of sounding like a walking apple advert, my iPhone and watch both have medical data including emergency contact under the emergency section.

Because I also take medications that mean I should wear a warning, I have a clip added to my watch wrist band with info on it. Like this ice id

It's worth including your NHS number in the emergency information section too.

At my hospital we finally have a computer system that has all of the patients previous admission paperwork scanned into it. So if someone arrived unconscious, but had something with their name and date of birth on them, like their driving licence, then we could search their records and see if they had a recorded next of kin on any paper work, which would hopefully have a phone number.

Next of kin can be anybody you chose. So sad when I ask patients and they say they don't have anyone .