What to Engrave
Engraving guidance
What to Engrave
Your MediWear piece is designed to speak for you if you cannot. The engraving should be clear, essential, and easy for emergency responders to understand at a glance.
The Essentials
Keep it readable- Your name Use the official name your doctors know you by.
- Medical conditions Include conditions that could affect emergency treatment, such as diabetes, epilepsy, heart conditions, or severe asthma.
- Allergies Especially medication allergies or anything that could cause a serious reaction.
- Emergency contact A trusted person who should be contacted first. You can include a name and phone number, or use “ICE”.
- NHS, CHI, or H&C number (optional) Including a medical identifier can help emergency teams confirm the correct record more quickly. Common examples include NHS number (UK), CHI number (Scotland), or H&C number (Northern Ireland).
How we check engraving details before production
Every order is reviewed for clarity and layout before engraving begins. If anything looks unclear, we will contact you to confirm before it is made permanent.
This helps ensure your engraving is accurate and useful in an emergency.
Read more about our processHow to emphasise what matters
Most important firstSpace is limited, so focus on information that would matter in the first few minutes of an emergency.
Good engraving is:
- Short and clear
- Easy to read
- Focused on safety, not life history
Why include an NHS or CHI number?
Medical identifiers can help clinicians quickly confirm your identity and connect you to the correct records, especially when you cannot speak for yourself.
- Helps confirm the correct patient record
- Reduces confusion when names are similar
- Supports faster access to key information (allergies, medications, history)
- Useful if you are unconscious or disoriented
- Recognised across UK emergency and clinical settings
These numbers are optional. Some people prefer to keep engraving minimal, while others include an identifier for added clarity.
Use MediWear AI to help it fit
When you are engraving, you can use MediWear AI to help abbreviate medical terms so more essential information can fit clearly on the pendant.
For example, T1D instead of Type 1 Diabetes, or common device abbreviations such as PPM. Only use abbreviations you are confident are correct for the wearer.
Buying as a gift?
If you are not fully sure what to engrave, you can purchase a pendant without engraving and have it engraved later by a local jeweller once the correct details are confirmed.
Engraving is permanent, so this is a simple way to avoid the wrong information being added when buying for someone else.
How the engraving is laid out
Labels includedOn many MediWear designs, small labels are engraved to make information instantly recognisable (for example, NAME, DOB, NHS). This helps emergency responders scan and understand the essentials quickly.
If you want a different label, select Custom in the engraving dropdown on the product page and type your own label.
| Label engraved | What you provide | Example |
|---|---|---|
| NAME | Your name | Alex Green |
| DOB | Date of birth | 23-04-75 |
| NHS or CHI / H&C | Medical identifier number | 4857773456 |
| ICE | Emergency contact | 07xxxxxxxxx |
| Custom | Your own label + text | ALLERGY: PENICILLIN |
Example Engravings
NAME Alex Green CONDITIONS T1D, ON INSULIN NHS No. 4857773456
NAME Marie Patel ALLERGY Penicillin ICE 07xxxxxxxxx
Not Sure What to Include?
This is completely normal. If you are unsure, choose the information you would want a paramedic to know immediately. Your engraving is checked carefully before production.
Prefer to ask a human? Email us at hello@mediwear.co.uk and we will help you choose a clear layout.