Drones helping the sick

WHEN Nepali labourer Om Bahadur Purja sprained his leg in his remote village he would have faced a four-hour trek to the nearest medical centre – but for a pioneering scheme to bring healthcare to the Himalayas.

Instead, the 60-year-old father of three received the treatment he needed in his home village thanks to the recent arrival of a drone carrying basic medicines and equipment.

“This saved me a lot of trouble, time and money,” Purja told the Thomson Reuters Foundation from Ramche, a Himalayan village 250km northwest of Kathmandu.

Thousands of people living in remote areas of Nepal have no access to proper healthcare facilities, which means they have to walk or be carried long distances if they fall ill.

The poor Himalayan country has just over 2600 doctors – less than one for every 10,000 people. Many Nepalis resort to traditional healers.

Enter Mahabir Pun, a 63year-old former teacher, whose non-profit National Innovation Centre (NIC) has developed the country’s first “medical drone”.

The machine, designed and assembled by graduates, is the most effective way of bringing health services to people in difficult-to-reach areas, said Pun.

The drone can carry samples of blood and other fluids to the nearest laboratory for tests, and deliver supplies.