MEDICAL DRONES HELP SAVE LIVES

Speed is of the essence in health care. In Botswana like many other developing countries and emerging economies, life-saving medication is often not accessible on the spot. Poor roads and the lack of refrigeration mean they cannot be delivered at short notice either. This is where the drones come in.

The Drones for Health pilot project, launched recently in Palapye is a partnership between the Health and Wellness ministry, Ministry of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology through the Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) aimed at leveraging the use of drone technology in the health sector. The project, conceived in 2018 aims to accelerate reduction of preventable maternal deaths by delivering maternal health supplies and commodities including essential emergency obstetric care drugs, blood and blood products among others.

One of the main reasons for the introduction of the system is to try to drive down the risk of mothers dying in childbirth, which often occurs as a result of blood loss as it can often be hard to deliver blood supplies as quickly as necessary by road to rural areas of the country. In Botswana, postpartum hemorrhaging is the leading cause of death for pregnant women.

“Although efforts have been made to ensure 84 percent of our population lives within a 5km radius of the nearest health facility, we continue to face challenges of delay in delivery and access to lifesaving and very often, critical health products is hampered by the inability to deliver needed medicine from a city to rural or remote locations due to lack of adequate transportation, communication and supply chain infrastructure,” Health and Wellness Minister, Dr Edwin Dikoloti shared during the launch.

“Drones have the potential to revolutionise the way we reach remote communities with emergency medical supplies.

The hours saved delivering blood products or a vaccine for someone who has been exposed to rabies with this technology could make the difference between life and death,”he said. Adding that, drones will be more efficient, faster and cost effective when used to deliver medical consignments compared to vehicles and other modes of transportation. In remote areas in particular, they can significantly reduce waiting times for patients and thus save lives.

The pilot project will run until May 2022 and the pilot areas targeted are Lecheng, Mokgware, Mogapi and Moremi.