The invention relates to a device for temporari¬ ly fastening a plastic bag or the like in an upwardly open container, such as a bedpan.

Bedpans are generally used in hospitals or other larger institutions in which comparatively heavy and expensive equipments are available with the view of cleaning and sterilizing bedpans after use.

During recent years there has been an increasing need for using bedpans in a mobile connection with a view to improve the municipal home nursing, where cleaning and sterilizing cannot be effected in an appropriate manner as stated above. In this respect, use has been made of disposable bedpans made from plastic which are relatively expensive or use has been made of usual stainless steel bedpans which after use were washed with strong cleaning materials under primi¬ tive conditions in patient's lavatory. The latter method suffers from working inconveniences as well as from environmental inconveniences in general. As an alternative it has been attempted to make use of a common stainless steel bedpan, placing therein a plastic bag which is removed with the unclean side facing inwards after the bedpan has been emptie . The plastic bag may in this connection completely encapsul- ate the stainless steel bedpan or simply be inserted into the interior of the bedpan and over the rim. This alternative, however, suffers from the drawback that the pastic bag has a tendency to adhere to the patient so that the plastic bag is drawn out of the bedpan when the body wastes do not have a sufficiently high weight. The contents will then be spilled over the bed.

It is an object of the invention to solve the latter problem. This is obtained by means of a device

of the above mentioned type that is characterized in that the device consists of an adhesive coating applied between the container and the plastic bag and adhering strongly to the plastic bag and faintly to the con- tainer.

By designing the adhesive coating so as to adhere strongly to the plastic bag and faintly to the container it is obtained that the adhesive coating is removed together with the plastic bag after use. In a particularly advantageous embodiment the adhesive coating is formed as a double-adhering foil. The different adhesion may advantageously be obtained by applying different adhesive coatings to the two adhesive sides of the foil. It is thus obtained that the adhesive coating and the plastic bag may be purchased separately and different plastic bags may be used according to desire, and the strong and faint adhesion, respectively, may be obtained by means of different adhesive coatings. The different adhesion on the two sides may alternatively be obtained in that the same adhesive is used on the two sides of the foil but that the adhesive on the faintly adhering side is applied as a grid pattern. The designing of the double-adhering foil as a sheet and with substatially the same shape as the bot¬ tom of the container provides for obtaining a simpli¬ fied handling of the foil.

In order to facilitate the removal of the bag without tearing it, in particular in connection with thin plastic bags, the adhesive foil sheet may be pro¬ vided with at least one grasping tab which in the posi¬ tion of use extends along the upright edge and does not adhere thereto.

The invention will now be explained by means of examples of embodiment with reference to the drawings, in which

Fig. l is a cross-section showing a bedpan with adhesive coating and a plastic bag according to the invention.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged section of Fig. 1, Fig. 3 is a sheet-shaped double-adhering foil with grasp tabs according to the invention, and

Fig. 4 is an enlarged section along IV-IV in Fig. 3.

In the embodiment of the invention illustrated in Figs 1 and 2 the device consists of an adhesive coating 3 positioned between the container 1 which in the illustrated example is a bedpan, and the plastic bag 2. In this example the adhesive is of such a type that the adhesion to the plastic bag is strong and the adhesion to the bedpan is vague.

Figs 3 and 4 show an example of a sheet-shaped double-adhering foil 6 with grasping tabs 5. As best seen in Fig. 4 the sheet-shaped double-adhering foil consists of a carrier foil 12 forming also the grasp- ing tabs 5, an adhesive coating 9 for adhesion against the plastic bag and having a cover sheet 7 with a tearing-off tab 11 and an adhesive coating 10 applied as a grid pattern and having a cover sheet 8 with a tearing-off tab 13. By using said sheet-shaped double-adhering foil the cover sheet 8 which may advantageously have another colour than the cover sheet 7 is at first teared off by means of the tearing-off tab 13 and the foil is placed inside the basin of the bedpan 1, the grasp tabs 5 being oriented upwardly along the inter¬ nal side of the bedpan. Cover sheet 7 is then teared off by means of the tearing-off tab 11 and the plastic bag is fixedly adhered to the bottom of the bedpan and everted over the sides. (See Fig. 1). After use the plastic bag and the adhesive foil are removed from the bedpan and disposed of while using the grasp-

ing tabs 5, following which the bedpan is ready for receiving a new foil and plastic bag.

The device according to the invention may be used for other purposes requiring a plastic bag to be temporarily fastened in an upwards open container, e.g. a disposal bag in a bin as generally used on railway stations, in parks, at bus stops and the like, or a plastic bag in a closet pail or in a chemical closet.

The device is supposed to be manufatured in many varying versions, such as a plastic bag provided with an adhesive coating and with a cover sheet or double- adhering foil or sheet foils delivered separately along with plastic bags or applied to plastic bags.