Workers from the North Tees & Hartlepool Hospital Trust participated in the creation of Community Kit Bags made by NTH Solutions LLP, which is an NHS-owned company that is a subsidiary of the trust.

The bags are designed to be compact, easy to carry, improve stock

management, reduce stock damage and replenishment time, while also providing an all-important sterile surface for patient treatment, vastly improving patient safety.

Thw idea for a compact Community Kit Bag came as a result of the lack of an “essential mobile equipment cupboard” when nurses were out and about treating patients.

Around 5,500 of the bags are already being used by NHS workers around the country and it is estimated that the time-savings they have created have saved the NHS in the region of £13m so far.

The team behind the bags say that if all of the nation’s 86,000 community nurses used the bags, the saving could be almost £200m.

Profits from the sale of every Community Kit Bag go back into the NHS and patient care.

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 trialled by district nurses across the country and transformed the day-to-day efficiency of

crucial care workers and medical teams nationwide.”

Northern nurses help create Community Kit Bags saving the NHS millions