‘Red bags’ to be rolled out across England’s care homes getting patients home from hospital quicker

The red bags, which contain key paperwork, medication and personal items, are handed to ambulance crews by carers and travel with care home residents to hospital. The initiative, which started three years ago in Sutton, is now to be rolled out across the country.

The red bag is the most visible part of successful collaboration between care homes, hospitals and ambulance staff, known as the hospital transfer pathway.

 

When a resident becomes unwell and is assessed as needing hospital care, care home staff pack a dedicated red bag that includes the resident’s standardised paperwork and their medication, as well as day-of-discharge clothes and other personal items. This helps facilitate a smoother handover between care home, ambulance and hospital staff, and results from use in Sutton suggest length of stay may be reduced. Currently just over 40% of Health and Wellbeing Boards have reported that they have implemented the red bag scheme in their area and a quick guide has been published to help increase this number.