DRONE-delivered medical supplies will fly into Rugby’s hospital as part of a trial, the first of its kind in the UK.
The Hospital of St Cross will be connected to University Hospital Coventry via a 20-mile drone flight ‘corridor’ designed to speed up medical deliveries.
The trial, which runs to the end of the year, will aim to conduct a record-breaking number of routine and ad hoc medical drone deliveries.
The long-term aim of the trial is to help ease the growing pressures on the healthcare system by helping hospitals to receive vital time-sensitive medical supplies.
The trial is a collaboration between Coventry-based Skyfarer Ltd and Medical Logistics UK.
Skyfarer Project Manager Georgia Hanrahan said: “As a result of significant road congestion and heavy infrastructure, we believe the use of drones can help support medical deliveries and speed up the process.
“There are no potholes in the sky, nor is there as much congestion, and without the need for heavy infrastructure to land, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can add to the fleet of logistical transfers and provide a faster, more sustainably friendly and cheaper solution.”
Skyfarer was founded in 2017 by Elliot Parnham, an Aerospace and Engineering graduate from Coventry University, with the aim of using drones for good in society – with the first of its projects being Medical Drone Delivery.
He said: “I started Skyfarer back in 2017 and it was all on that message of trying to provide societal change and that’s through this new high value technology of UAVs, or drones, being used in positive use cases such as medical delivery.”
This trial is sponsored by London-based Medical Logistics UK, which provides time-sensitive medical deliveries and personalised on-demand medical tests.
Managing Director Alex Landowski said: “I welcome our new partnership as an opportunity to revolutionise the UK medical supply chain. With our emission-free solution, this UK-first trial over land will conduct a record-breaking number of routine and ad hoc medical deliveries.”
This trial is the first of its kind as it is over land, between two NHS Trust hospitals, in a Hub-Centric Network and operating 24 hours – meaning all operations are controlled from one central location and flown beyond a visual line of sight.
Flights will be conducted in all weather conditions at different times of day throughout the remainder of the year. This will allow the Flight Operations team to work with the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) Trust to determine how the technology can be permanently integrated in the future, with the aim of ensuring it is accessible to each department whenever required.
A series of routine and ad hoc emergency flights will also be conducted to determine the reliability of the Skyfarer service and future-proof the NHS integration.
The trial kicks off the first leg of the Future Flight Phase 3 project’s corridor called ‘Skyway’ – a drone superhighway connecting over 160 miles of the UK by the sky, for operators such as Skyfarer to fly beyond visual line of sight safely and routinely.
