The message
from Derek Moody contains these words:

In article , Mary
wrote:
On Sat, 09 Jul 2005 09:00:12 GMT, "JB" wrote:


Eight out of ten people aren"t carrying information that would help if
they were involved in an accident.

Eight out of ten people probably don't need to. NO hospital is going
to take a telephoned relative's word on blood group, for example.

Their choice. This is the National ID card argument all over again :-(

It would be as much (if not more) sense to write a list of allergies on your
(always clean, just in case) underwear.

People with serious medical conditions/allergies already have the
option of wearing a Medicalert bracelet/necklace.

Given the number of mobile phones that are stolen, or swapped or
shared among families, or even shared between work colleagues, there are
too many opportunities for wrong ICE information to be attached to the
wrong patient. For that reason alone I think it highly unlikely that
hospitals would risk relying on any medical information obtained from an
ICE call.

It only needs a few mobile-phone thieves to have fun making malicious
calls to ICE numbers, for the call recipients to feel an equal lack of
confidence in the system.

Far better to have your NHS registration number tattooed on your
bottom. This is more secure than tattooing it on your forehead, which
risks having your medical history hijacked by casual passers by.

Janet.