What’s in a FREC 3 response bag, and why each item earns its place

A response bag is only as good as the match between what is in it and what you have been trained to do. Fill it with kit above your scope and you have dead weight and a liability. Miss things the syllabus expects you to reach for and you are improvising on the day.

Our FREC 3 bag is built on the MERE M1 platform and stocked to around 36 line items that map onto the FREC Level 3 syllabus. It is laid out the way you are taught to work: catastrophic bleeding first, then airway, breathing, circulation, then everything else. Contents are indicative, and we review the bag as the syllabus and stock change.

Catastrophic haemorrhage

The first pouch you open, and the one that decides whether a casualty is still alive in five minutes. A windlass tourniquet, haemostatic gauze, emergency trauma dressings in more than one size, and compressed gauze for packing. This is not the place to save money or space.

Airway

Oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal airways across the sizes you actually need, a manual suction device for blood and vomit, and lubricant. Basic adjuncts only. Supraglottic devices sit outside the FREC 3 scope, which is why they are not in this bag. If a kit carries equipment its owner cannot legally use, something has gone wrong in the planning.

Breathing

Vented chest seals for penetrating trauma, a bag valve mask with an oxygen reservoir, and pocket masks. There are fittings and space for an oxygen cylinder where the operating environment allows one.

Circulation and the rest

More trauma dressings and bandages, wound closure strips, a foil blanket, and a full observations set: pulse oximeter, sphygmomanometer, thermometer. That is enough to take and record a proper set of vitals, because “he looked pale” is not a handover.

Then the unglamorous majority of the bag. Nitrile gloves in quantity, trauma shears, a torch, a casualty report form and a pen that works. Burn dressings, eye wash, a small run of plasters and dressings for minor injuries. It closes with colour coded internal pouches so a second responder can find what they need without a running commentary.

Kitted, unkitted, or topped up

You can buy the bag fully kitted, or as the empty platform if you already hold a stock of consumables. If your team runs a different bag and does not want to relearn a new layout under pressure, we will supply a top up pack that brings the existing bag up to FREC 3 coverage instead.

What we will not do is sell you a bag that looks impressive and does not match your training. Tell us the course your people are on and the environment they work in, and the bag follows from that.