Allergy and who calls the hospital

You put allergies in the life file as facts a hospital must be able to read. You name the substance or the medicine, and in ordinary words what happened the last time. You add no judgement about the severity and no instruction to the doctor. Also note the name of the GP and the telephone number of the practice. If there is someone who may call the hospital when you cannot do that yourself, the name and number of that person go on the same page. That line is a contact. It does not make that person someone who decides on the treatment. Update the line as soon as an allergy is new or an old line is no longer correct, and add the date of that change.

The contact person may pass on what is written: the name of the substance and the number of the GP. That person does not choose the medicine, the admission or what follows. So do not write a sentence as an order, and do not write a list that looks like a treatment plan. Treatment wishes belong with the doctor, during life. The donor register belongs with the register. The file only points out whether those papers exist and where they are. You leave the text itself there. Ervazo stores your answers and does not send them to the hospital and not to a notary. A reader of the file is a caller, not a substitute for the doctor on duty. Keep it to one or two names, with a number that works now.

An allergy you had years ago and that is no longer correct, you take off the list, or you note that it has lapsed, with a date. A new reaction goes on only when you know it, not from a story by a relative who thinks they roughly know. A short list that is current is better than a long list with doubt. You check the telephone number of the contact person when that person gets a different number. If there is no one who may be called, you leave that line empty. You do not fill it with the first name that comes to mind. The GP then remains the only care contact on the page, and that is an honest state of affairs.

A life file is a note for later. It is not a will, not a medical instruction and not advice. The allergy line and the telephone number point to a contact. They give no one the authority to decide about a treatment and they appoint no heir or executor. Those roles belong in a notarial will, if you want to record them. A codicil has its own, strictly handwritten form and is not this contact. Ervazo stores the note and does not send it to a doctor. Whoever calls the hospital reads out what is written and leaves the care decision with the people who may make it.