The short answer
Plasters, sterile dressings, a bandage, tape, scissors, tweezers, disposable gloves, antiseptic wipes and your usual painkillers. Keep it somewhere everyone knows.
- Plasters in assorted sizes, plus blister plasters.
- Sterile dressings, two or three, in different sizes.
- A crepe bandage and a triangular bandage.
- Micropore tape and scissors.
- Tweezers for splinters, and a fine pair for ticks if you are rural.
- Disposable gloves, several pairs.
- Antiseptic wipes and a saline pod for washing out eyes and grit.
- Paracetamol and ibuprofen, plus children's versions if relevant.
- A foil blanket, which weighs nothing and is genuinely useful.
What will ruin it
Check the dates once a year. Dressings lose sterility and medicines expire, and a kit nobody has opened for five years is usually a box of things that no longer work.
Why it works
The point of a kit is that it is complete at the moment you need it, which is always when you are not thinking clearly. Anything that needs improvising is one thing too many.
This is general information, not medical advice, and it does not replace a GP, a pharmacist or NHS 111. Call 999 in an emergency. Full disclaimer.