Lewisham care home residents will receive a special red bag labelled with their personal media information to take along if they are admitted to hospital.

The Red Bag health scheme ensure paramedics and hospital staff are aware of the medication patients are on and the conditions they have and is now being rolled out across Lewisham.

Martin Wilkinson, Lewisham Commissioning Group (CCG) told local media Eastlondonlines: “We first implemented the red bag scheme in May and have now put it in place for every care home in Lewisham.

“It’s a simple concept, but it has big impacts for keeping patient discharges safe and smooth from hospital back to their care homes. Now it is making a huge difference to care home patients across South London.”

It was revealed by an earlier roll-out of the scheme in Sutton that having bags for patients prevented them from local personal items such as glasses and hearing aids.