Teeside Nurses & Specialists kit saves the NHS millions

An inspirational idea, from a team of Northern nurses and infection control specialists, has proven to be a winner worldwide, saving millions for the NHS and could continue to save millions more.

North Tees & Hartlepool Hospital Trust workers have created a groundbreaking design and award-winning (2022 UK Business Awards) multipurpose medical Community Kit Bag, with successful trials showing that the brilliant bags allow:

30 per cent increase in patient visits, 90 per cent reduction in back to base trips, 87 per cent reduction in back to boot trips, 92 per cent reduction in miles travelled and 87 per cent reduction in travel time, saving the NHS £2,286. per community nurse annually

To date 5,500 Community Kit Bags are ALREADY in use across NHS Trusts SAVING the NHS ALMOST £13m annually (£12,573,000.)

However, according to NHS England there are 86,000 community nurses, therefore IF ALL 86,000 NHS community nurses, across the 219 NHS Trusts, were equipped with the Community Kit Bag this could be an immense ANNUAL National Health Service SAVING of almost £200m (£196,596,000.)

Teesside nurses were part of a top team of contributors who came up with the idea for the bags, the result of a collaboration between frontline NHS district nurses and infection control specialists.

The Community Kit Bags are compact, easy to carry, improve stock management, reduce stock damage and replenishment time, plus provide an all-important sterile surface for patient treatment, vastly improving patient safety.

To date, NTH Solutions has provided thousands of kit bags (normal, wheeled, rucksack) to 29 different clients nationwide with orders from 20 NHS trusts. The first order for kit bags was 20 bags for Rochdale (Pennine Acute Hospitals) in August 2020.

Tony Wilson, head of commercial innovation from NTH Solutions, said “We were approached by community nurses working within our Trust who wanted a solution to the problem of storage and transportation of medical supplies. They were making many resupply trips to their base, using shopping bags and rucksacks in the boot of their car to carry the supplies to patient visits.

“Hence, the creation of the Community Kit Bag which has now been trialed by district nurses across the country and transformed the day-to-day efficiency of crucial care workers and medical teams nationwide.”

By Mark Adair – Correspondent, Bdaily

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