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Boots is the first community pharmacy in the UK to use a drone to deliver prescription drugs, as reported by Metro. The drone carried medicine from Baker Barracks on Thorney Island to St. Mary’s Hospital on the Isle of Wight. It was then transferred to local pharmacies to be used for patients.
(Photo : by Luke Dray/Getty Images)
KAYONZA, RWANDA – JUNE 30: A nurse processes blood, delivered by a drone, at a local hospital on June 30, 2022 in Rwinkwavu, Rwanda. Zipline, a California-based company that creates drone-based delivery systems, has run projects in Rwanda and Ghana for several years, and recently started operations in Nigeria, where it focuses on areas that are difficult to navigate by road.
The delivery was a part of a trial run using Apian’s medical drone. Now, Boots will assess how drones can be useful as an unmanned shipping mechanism.
The Drone
The drones can carry up to 20kg of payload and are based at the Thorney Island barracks at St. Mary’s Hospital’s helipad. Professional drone pilots will fly them.
They are electric, vertical take-off, and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. Its largest drone has a weight of 85kg and a wingspan of 5m. It was designed and developed by Skylift.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has granted permission for the drones to fly in segregated airspace between Baker Barracks on Thorney Island and St. Mary’s Hospital’s helipad. You can watch the video here:
Also read: Drones 2022: Signs its Time to Buy Your Own Drone
The Future of Drones in Medicine
The successful delivery of medicines, it shows that the drone has a huge potential to do more in the future, specifically to remote locations. Boots is assessing how much time they can save and how they can add these drones into their medicines supply chain. The company is now preparing for a wider roll-out of this technology in the future.
NHS England also recently announced that they would use drones to deliver chemotherapy products to the island as it is faster. The Royal Mail also said they would introduce over 200 drones to deliver posts to remote locations in the next three years.
Also, last month, Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, announced that the government has set aside £12m in funding for a 164-mile drone superhighway, which will be called the Skyway.
Drones for Sustainability in Healthcare
As mentioned above, drones may be one of the best ways to deliver medicines in the future, especially in remote locations.
In the Amazon rainforest, for example, there are over 60,000 indigenous people living with no access to medical facilities. When there is a health emergency, it can take hours for the nearest ambulance to arrive. However, medicine, vaccines, and food can now be delivered by drone. It can be used in places that doctors or paramedics can’t reach.
Apian chief operating officer Max Coppin said, “While faster and more reliable than ground transportation they bring with them additional environmental benefits and offer a more sustainable solution for delivery.”
Related article: Scientists Test Out Drones That Could Help Deliver Medical Samples To Remote Destinations
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Written by April Fowell
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