Understanding Your Rescue Pack

What is in a rescue pack

Rescue packs are individualised, but commonly contain:

• An antibiotic — for when sputum increases or changes colour, suggesting a bacterial infection.
• A short course of steroid tablets (prednisolone) — for when breathlessness and wheeze are the main problem.
• Clear written instructions — your action plan, saying when to start, what dose, and for how long.

Not everyone needs both parts. Your prescriber decides what is right for you.

A rescue pack is usually suitable if you can: recognise the signs of a flare-up or infection; understand when your plan says to start, and how to complete the course; follow the individual plan agreed with your clinician; and let your care team know when you start it.¹

What your action plan tells you

Your GP or specialist should have given you a written plan setting out when and how to use your rescue pack — bring it along to your first appointment with us. It tells us the criteria you have been given for starting, and what you have been prescribed, so we can work to your plan rather than a general one.

Your written action plan is the authority on when to start. It sets your own criteria, doses and durations, and those are individual to you — the timings in one person’s plan do not apply to anyone else’s. Most plans use a traffic-light structure, in which the amber zone describes symptoms clearly worse than usual and marks the point at which stepping up begins.^2,3 Plans commonly ask you to increase your reliever first⁴ and to keep using non-drug strategies — breathing techniques, positions of ease, airway clearance, a handheld fan or cool air, and energy conservation — before any short-course medicines are considered. The triggers your plan refers to usually include:

• More sputum, or sputum that has become thicker or darker → usually the antibiotic.
• Increasing breathlessness and wheeze → usually the steroid.
• Both together → often both, as your plan directs.

If you cannot get a GP appointment

If you are unsure whether to start your pack and you cannot get an appointment with your GP, contact your cardiorespiratory physiotherapist. They can talk you through your action plan, help you decide whether your symptoms meet your own “start” criteria, and update your GP on how you are. They can also help with the breathlessness itself — breathing exercises, clearing sputum and getting moving again.

This is not a substitute for your GP’s decision, and it does not change what your plan says. It is a way of getting the plan read with you by someone who knows your breathing, rather than waiting and doing nothing.

Staying safe with these medicines

• Finish the full course of antibiotics as prescribed, even once you feel better.
• Take steroid tablets in the morning with food; do not stop a longer course suddenly without advice.
• Keep your pack in date — check the expiry regularly and ask for a replacement when you use it or it expires.
• Tell your GP every time you use a rescue pack, and say if you have needed more than one in a year — your regular treatment may need reviewing.

References & evidence base

1. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in over 16s: diagnosis and management (NG115). London: NICE, 2019.
2. Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease. Global strategy for the diagnosis, management and prevention of COPD: 2026 report. GOLD; 2026. Available at: goldcopd.org
3. Lung Foundation Australia. COPD-X Handbook: summary clinical practice guidelines for the management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Milton, Qld: Lung Foundation Australia; 2024. (Supersedes the COPD-X Concise Guide.)
4. Lung Foundation Australia. Improving COPD exacerbation algorithm (FS0126V2). Brisbane: Lung Foundation Australia, 2026.

References are numbered in citation order (Vancouver/BMJ style) and were current at the time of writing. Guidelines are living documents — verify against the latest version before clinical use.