Staff from care homes across Glasgow came together in April to share their experience of participating in the Red Bag Scheme. The event, held in Glasgow City Chambers, also featured inputs on how care homes can support a reduction in medicines waste and how having Anticipatory Care Plans can lead to positive outcomes for care home residents.

The Red Bag Scheme was introduced in Glasgow City in July 2018 to 22 care and residential homes, to support and improve links between acute sites and care and residential homes. It works as a visual prompt to provide a central location for the transfer of information, appropriate medication and property in the event of an unplanned visit to hospital by a resident.

The Red Bag contains standardised information about the resident's general health, any existing medical conditions they have and medication they are taking, as well as highlighting the current health concern. It also has room for personal belongings (such as clothes for day of discharge or wearing if appropriate whilst in hospital - glasses, hearing aid, dentures etc.), and it stays with the resident at all points of the hospital journey. When residents are ready to go home, a copy of their discharge summary (which details every aspect of the care they received in hospital) will be placed in the Red Bag so that care home staff have access to this important information when their resident arrives back home.

Opening the event, Stephen Fitzpatrick, Assistant Chief Officer, Older People’s Services and South Locality Operations welcomed participants and gave an overview of the Partnership’s vision for Older People’s Services over the next three years. 

He said: “Care homes play a central role in supporting key Partnership strategic priorities, in particular early intervention and reducing unscheduled hospital admissions, better hospital discharge arrangements and better management of patient care in the most appropriate setting. I welcome this opportunity to hear directly from care home providers about their experiences, including the continuing challenges presented by an older, frail population with increasingly complex care needs.“

Richard Groden, Clinical Director shared some feedback about the Red Bag Scheme from a recent survey of care homes. He said: “Homes reported fewer occasions of paperwork was going missing and said that the Red Bag made it easier to manage paperwork as everything can be stored safely and securely inside, and that overall the Red Bag Scheme had improved the management of unplanned admissions for both the resident and staff whenever they had occurred.” 

Gordon Johnston, Manager at Erskine Care Home said: “The scheme has helped improve communication between the care home and hospital staff, and has supported the return of essential items such as personal property, medication and essential paperwork.”

Participants spent time working together in groups to identify what has worked well and where there are still challenges. Learning will also be shared with other Health and Social Care Partnerships as the Scheme is rolled out across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

A series of further events and activities to promote the Red Bag Scheme are being planned across care homes, Health and Social Care Partnership and hospital sites.  For more information about the Scheme please contact: RedBagEnquiries@ggc.scot.nhs.uk