System to deliver medicines by using drones in offing

 Nelly Mtema and Lyidia Shekighenda

DODOMA: THE government in the process to link all health facilities in the country from dispensary to national hospitals, to a system of

delivering medicines by using drones.

Deputy Minister for Health Dr Godwin Mollel told the august House here yesterday when responding to a basic question by Kilindi MP Omary Kigua (CCM), noting that the system will be implemented for piloting purposes.

In his basic question the legislator wanted to know when will the government start using drones to deliver medicines in rural dispensaries.

Responding, Dr Mollel said that the government has completed preparing a system for storing information of all health facilities in the country.

“This system will help to obtain geographical information of all health facilities in the country,” Dr Mollel said.

He added: “We are now in the process of connecting all the health facilities into this system for piloting and also to look at the costs of delivering medicines through drones compared to transporting them by road so as to make the right decisions.”

In his supplementary question, the MP said that given the ongoing Elnino rains that Tanzanians have experienced, it is obvious that the system is good and beneficial to the government.

He wanted to know whether the government was ready to expedite the process of ensuring delivery of medicines to rural areas through drones.

Responding, Dr Mollel said that the government is ready to use the system especially at the moment when the country experiences heavy rains with priority being given to rural health facilities.

“We will continue to expedite the process to see how far we can go, but I cannot promise for how long, but we are continuing because coordination is important,” he said.

Mid-June last year the government signed a deal with Zipline Company in a project to deliver medical supplies through using drones.

Over 1000 health facilities in ten regions were expected to benefit from the project.

According to Medical Stores Department, the drones will help deliver blood products, vaccines and medical supplies in areas that are remote and hard to reach.

It said that they will begin trials in two regions, which is Dodoma and Mwanza and scale up the service to other regions depending on the pilot results.

Zipline has previously deployed 15 drones serving 21 clinics from a single base in Rwanda. The delivery operation planned for Tanzania would be the world’s largest —120 drones at four bases serving more than 10 million people at 1,000 clinics across the country.