Recent Prevention of Future Deaths reports have highlighted an important issue: patients with Addison’s disease are not always carrying their Steroid Emergency Card.
These cards are essential. In an emergency, they inform healthcare professionals that steroid treatment must not be stopped, particularly if a patient is unable to communicate.
For general practice teams, the challenge isn’t understanding the importance—it’s finding a simple, practical way to act on it within existing workload.
Turning guidance into action
The NHS England bulletin calls on practices to support patients to carry their emergency card. The question is: what does that look like in practice?
A straightforward approach can make this manageable:
- Assign a clear owner (e.g. care coordinator, admin lead or pharmacist)
- Order Steroid Emergency Cards via PCSE online or NHS Forms / Print / Exemptions / Cards
- Identify patients with Addison’s disease or adrenal insufficiency
- Make cards available through routine touchpoints (e.g. appointments, reviews)
- Record when cards are issued
- Ensure emergency plans are documented where appropriate
This doesn’t require new systems or clinics—just small adjustments to existing workflows.
Why this matters
This is a small intervention with potentially life-saving impact.
The key is not adding complexity, but making it easy for practices to act:
- Clear ownership
- Simple identification of patients
- Use of existing processes
With a simple approach, this becomes the kind of task a team can quickly pick up and complete—rather than something that sits on a list.
A practical next step
We’ve created a simple implementation guide to help practices put this into action.
👉 Download the step-by-step guide: Implementation Guide PDF
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