NHS blood samples to be delivered by drone in London first
A landmark UK NHS initiative will see blood samples delivered by drone, a first for London, with a six-month pilot project to start in Autumn 2024.
With the journey between Guy’s Hospital and the pathology laboratory at St Thomas’ Hospital currently taking more than half an hour by road, the use of electric drones can reduce the journey time to less than two minutes; enabling expedited analysis. This trial will specifically focus on samples for patients undergoing surgery who are at high risk of complications from bleeding disorders.
The six-month operation has been organised as a partnership between the two hospitals, NHS healthcare logistics company Apian, and global drone delivery company Wing (part of Google’s parent company, Alphabet). Apian and Wing have previously partnered on medical drone delivery in Dublin, while the former has also trialled medical drone deliveries in rural areas of the UK. The Civil Aviation Authoriy (CAA), which has granted airspace approval, will regulate the operation.
As well as helping to provide the best possible patient care through faster turnaround times, the use of drones will also bring significant environmental benefits, negating the need for road vehicles. Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS foundation trust expects the use of lightweight commercial drones to reduce CO2e emissions by up to 99% compared to non-electric cars.
Co-founder of Apian Dr Hammad Jeliani explained that an NHS drone delivery network in London will help the NHS “create more efficient models of working,” with the use of drones set to “increase the responsiveness ad resilience of healthcare logistics, allowing clinicians to be more productive and patients to get the care they need sooner”.
This is not the only initiative exploring the use of UAVs to transport medical products, with project CALEUS (a consortium set up to develop and trial what will be the UK’s first national distribution network to use drones to transport essential medicines, blood, organs and other medical supplies throughout Scotland) set to run until the end of this year.
