The Community Kit Bag: A Ground-Breaking Idea That Could Save the NHS Millions

A new nursing kit bag could revolutionize the way nurses respond to medical emergencies and home care visits. The idea of the Community Kit Bags was created by a team of Teesside nurses and has won at the 2022 U.K. Business Awards.

They are already being used by nurses in the National Health Service after first being created in Teesside. With 5,500 bags in use, the NHS is saving on average around $13 million per year.

This idea for a compact Community Kit Bag came as a result of the lack of an ‘ essential mobile equipment cupboard’ when out and about treating patients. The nurses and specialists, along with NTH Solutions, an NHS owned company, invented the kit bag to save lives through streamlining transportation of medical supplies and complying with Infection Prevention and Control guidance.

Teesside based nurses worked with frontline NHS district nurses as well as infection control specialists to come up with the idea of the Community Kit Bags. The bags have been described as ‘compact and easy to carry’ as well as making improvements to stock management, reduce damage and provide all-important sterile surface for patient treatment, improving patient safety.

According to NHS, figures there are currently 86,000 community nurses across the UK, if the Community Kit Bags were used by all nurses across all 219 NHS trusts, estimates show this could save the NHS a staggering £196,596,000 annually. The Community Kit Bag has also been a success internationally as well as across Teesside and other parts of the UK, with some even being shipped as far as Australia.

NTH Solutions have created a range of different kit bags, including ‘normal’, rucksack and wheeled, with the first ever order of 20 being sent to Rochdale in August 2020.