A ground-breaking Red Bag scheme that was launched in Sutton to give care home residents going into hospital an easier stay and quicker discharge has been included in one of the most prestigious medicine collections in the world.
The Red Bag, which contains key paperwork, medication and personal items like glasses and dentures and is given to ambulance crews to hand to a hospital doctor, has been added to the Science Museum Group Collection.
As well as giving reassurance to patients, the Red Bags provide hospital staff with quick, up-to-date information and medication requirements, reducing the time taken to make any follow-up inquiries.
This simple innovation is a testament to the team who came together from different jobs to make a difference to the care home residents in their local area, and its subsequent roll-out across the NHS shows no idea or solution is too small to have a national impact.
Selina Hurley, Curator of Clinical and Research Medicine at the Science Museum
The simple initiative, devised with Sutton Council, care home representatives, London Ambulance Service and others, has been held up as a good example of how the NHS is working in partnership with social care so patients only have to tell their story once and it proved so successful that it was rolled out nationally in 2018.
A digital equivalent – with people’s key information transferred securely from care homes to hospital staff in an emergency – was successfully piloted the following year and the eRedBag scheme is now being rolled out to care homes across south west London.
The Science Museum Group has added the Red Bag to its nursing and hospital furnishings collection, which charts the history of nursing as a profession and practice, focusing largely on the 19th and 20th centuries but also including items believed to date from the late neolithic period.
The Red Bag joins 1,857 items related to nursing which are already cared for by the Science Museum Group, featuring alongside the likes of a protective boot used in the treatment of trench foot from around 1914-1918, a carved wooden three-wheeler wheelchair with sprung seat and rubber tyre used in Europe between 1850-1890, a weighing machine with hanger and 13 weights inside from around 1800 and a variable height and tilt hospital bed from 1994.
The new online record for the Red Bag says that “with improved communication between care home and hospital staff, information sharing became easier and returning home much quicker” and adds that “by April 2019 it covered 80% of England” and “many areas adopt and tailor the pathway to their local needs”.
The Red Bag will be kept at the Science Museum Group’s Science and Innovation Park in Wiltshire, in a collection management facility which will open later this year for research visits and public tours.
Kristen Crossley, Red Bag project manager for the NHS in south west London, said: “The Red Bag was a simple idea that made a significant difference for care homes residents and hospital clinicians alike and it continues to do so to this day.
“Seeing it added to the Science Museum Group Collection – one of the most prestigious in the world – is a fantastic way to confirm the Red Bag’s impact here in south west London and across the country.
“We’re delighted that a scheme devised by the NHS, care home managers, Sutton Council, voluntary groups and others including the London Ambulance Service, to improve patient experience by ensuring a smoother, quicker hospital stay will be available for people to learn more about both now and for generations to come.
“I’d like to thank everyone involved, as their efforts have made a lasting impact on residents’ care.”
“Seeing it added to the Science Museum Group Collection – one of the most prestigious in the world – is a fantastic way to confirm the Red Bag’s impact here in south west London and across the country.
Kristen Crossley, Red Bag project manager for the NHS in south west London
Selina Hurley, Curator of Clinical and Research Medicine at the Science Museum, said: “We are always looking to ensure that the Science Museum Group Collection is representative of as many people’s experiences of health and medicine as possible, including residents in care homes.
“I was intrigued after seeing posters about the Red Bag in my local hospital, and it is a real delight to add the Red Bag to the Science Museum Group Collection.
“This simple innovation is a testament to the team who came together from different jobs to make a difference to the care home residents in their local area, and its subsequent roll-out across the NHS shows no idea or solution is too small to have a national impact.”
Councillor Marian James, Chair of the People Committee at the London Borough of Sutton, said: “I’m so proud that this simple Sutton initiative has been successfully rolled out nationally and is now being recognised by the Science Museum.
“This is a great example of a small action we can take together to support residents as individuals and improve their experience of care.”
Watch our film for more about the Red bag scheme and its digital equivalent