Ready to receive medication by drone courier…?

…some of you may soon be! Read on to find out more and what this is all about.

We have written a number of articles over the years about the onset and launch of drone delivery. It looks like this is taking a step to becoming more of a reality and a commonplace occurrence across the country.

What is this specifically all about?

Think about the Isle of Wight for a second. Whilst only just off the south coast, it is actually detached from the mainland in all reality. This mean that anything going in or out of the IOW needs to be transported by ferry. This can take time, cost money, be inconvenient, not to mention sometimes impossible in inclement weather for example. The NHS have recognised this, and how difficult it can be for people getting drugs or medicines. In response, they have now sought the use of drones in order to help.

What exactly is going on?

As part of a new trial which is currently launching, medication will be transported from Portsmouth to the IOW via a drone. The NHS hopes that this will save time and money, while speeding up the process of drug delivery for patients. The current trial will be focusing on people who need chemotherapy drugs, something which is vitally important and where time is critical. The hope is that this method of operation will also bring waiting times down in the NHS generally. With these at record levels at the moment, any step in the right direction is to be welcomed.

The added advantage is that using drone delivery will also be better for the environment because it avoids the use of trains, boats and planes – all of these modes of transport requiring fuel, fuel that is really expensive and bad for the planet.

Just what exactly will the saving be and what will happen?

Research has shown that for every journey the drone takes, it will replace 2 car journeys and one ferry or hovercraft journey per delivery. If this takes off (no pun intended,) the savings will soon mount up. Instead of taking around 4 hours for transportation (including waiting for ferries etc,) the time will be cut to under an hour, saving vital minutes, and allowing the time saved to be put back into other vital areas or resources.

Once the delivery has been undertaken by the drone, it then means that local residents on the IOW will be able to pick their prescriptions of medicines up from the hospital or local pharmacy, rather than having to travel to the mainland. This will save ill patients time and money (and more importantly) stress, at a time when they need to be focusing on health and recovery.

What do we think?

We think this is a great idea, despite what some might think that it could be potentially taking work away from couriers. Drone delivery will not work for everything (large items an obvious example,) so couriers will still always be needed. Where the use of technology can help speed things up and get vital supplies to people quicker, this can only be a good thing!

Whilst on the subject of health matters, if you are looking for an emergency medical courier please click the link for further information.