Health and care
Appointments, medicines and time off when you are unwell. 6 templates, all free to fill in and print.
The documents here exist to make a short appointment go further. A current medication list — every medicine, dose and timing, on one page — is the single most useful thing to carry, and it matters most on the day you are least able to recite it from memory. Write your questions down before you go, because they are much harder to remember in the room. Keep an emergency contact sheet where someone else could find it. And know your employer's rule on sickness absence: most only require a doctor's note after a set number of days, and self-certify the ones before that.
Illness generates admin at exactly the point you have least capacity for it. The documents here do one job: they hold information you would otherwise have to remember or repeat, at moments when repeating it is difficult. A current medication list, an up-to-date emergency contact, a record of appointments and what was said at each. None of this is medical advice and none of it replaces a clinician. What it does is make you a better witness to your own care, or to someone else's. The most common failure is keeping it all in a phone that nobody else can unlock, or in a memory that is fine until the day it is not. Print a copy.
Keep a current medication list
One page: the name of each medicine, the dose, how often, what it is for, who prescribed it and when it started. Put allergies and previous bad reactions at the top, where anyone will see them. Include everything, meaning inhalers, eye drops, injections, contraception, anything bought over the counter, and any supplement or herbal preparation, because those interact too. Update it whenever something changes rather than promising to do it later. This is the sheet a paramedic, a pharmacist, an out-of-hours doctor or a hospital admissions clerk asks for, at moments when nobody wants to be reconstructing it from packets in a carrier bag. Print one for your wallet, keep one at home where a family member can find it, and take it to every appointment.
Track appointments and what was said
An appointment tracker holds the date, the clinician, the department, why you went, what was decided and what happens next: the test ordered, the referral made, the review date. Care fragments across departments and systems that do not always talk to one another, and the person most likely to notice that a referral never happened is you. Write down questions before you go, because they evaporate in the room. Take someone with you for anything difficult, since two people hear more than one. Afterwards, note what you were told in plain words while it is fresh, with any reference number for a referral or test. If something has not arrived by the date you were given, that note is what lets you chase specifically rather than vaguely.
Time off when you are ill
Most employers require notification on the first day of absence and some form of self-certification for short periods, with a medical certificate needed beyond a threshold. That threshold, and whether sick pay is statutory, contractual or neither, is set by your country and sometimes your state, so check your contract and your local rule. A sickness self-certification form records the dates, the reason in general terms and your signature; you are not obliged to give clinical detail beyond what the form asks. For planned absence, a time off request form covering appointments, treatment or caring responsibilities keeps it on record and separate from sick leave. Keep copies of everything you send, and note the date and the person you told, because absence disputes are almost always about dates and notification.
Emergency contacts and insurance claims
An emergency contact form should name someone reachable during the hours you are away from home, who knows your basic medical history and where your medication list is. Tell them they are on it. Add a second name, because the first is often unreachable at precisely the wrong moment. If you hold health, travel or income protection cover, find out before you need it what the policy requires: notification periods, pre-authorisation, and which receipts and reports it wants. An insurance claim letter should quote the policy number, the dates, the treatment or event, and list the documents attached. Insurers decline more claims for missing paperwork and late notification than for anything else. Keep receipts and discharge summaries as you get them rather than assembling them later from memory.
The order to do it in
- Write a one-page medication list with allergies at the top, and print two copies.
- Name two emergency contacts who are actually reachable, and tell them they are named.
- Before each appointment write your questions down; afterwards note what was decided and any references.
- Notify your employer on day one of any absence and self-certify in the required form.
- Check what your insurer needs before treatment, then claim with policy number, dates and receipts attached.
Common questions
How many days can I be off sick without a medical certificate?
It depends where you work. Countries and sometimes individual states set the point at which a certificate becomes necessary, and employers can require notification earlier through a contract or absence policy. Check your contract and your national or state rule together. Whatever the threshold, tell your employer on the first day and keep a record of when and how, because that is the part disputes turn on.
What should be on a medication list?
Each medicine by name, the dose, the frequency, what it is for, the prescriber and the start date, with allergies and past reactions at the top. Include over-the-counter medicines, supplements and anything herbal. Keep it to one page and date it, so anyone reading knows how current it is. Carry a printed copy as well as a phone version, because a locked phone helps nobody in an emergency.
Should I take someone with me to a medical appointment?
For anything you expect to be complicated or upsetting, yes. A second person remembers different things, can write while you listen, and can ask the question you forgot. Tell the clinician who they are. If nobody can come, ask whether you may record the consultation, or for the summary in writing. Either way, write down what was decided and any referral or test reference before you leave the building.