Cross River State Health introduces Drones for Delivery of medical supplies across state

State Correspondent

Cross River State in  Nigeria leaps into the 22nd  century as it partners with Zipline to ensure Medical Products are delivered To Health Facilities By Drones. Sen. Prof. Ben Ayade’s administration is poised to achieve Universal Health coverage removing barriers that will stop cross riverians from getting the best of medical care and attention. Within the next 90 days, the Cross River State government is set to deploy Medical Drones that will henceforth convey medical products to health facilities within hard to reach areas of the State a major priority.

The Drones that can cover about 85km has an autonomous control mechanism and a flight operation team at every distance with an ability to supply medical products and other consumables to such areas. It will be made up of a fulfillment team that will be in charge of medical products; to receive medical products and ensure that they are in good position before the operational team can then make delivery. Fastness and reliability is ensured with this Drones as lives can be saved in case of any emergency with a capacity to make over 150 deliveries per day. wastage will also be reduced and facilities with little or no product can easily get supplies using the Drones from other nearby health facilities within a maximum time frame of 30mins.

Speaking during the signing ceremony in Calabar, the State Governor, Sen. Prof. Ben Ayade has stated that the drone medical services will play a special role in the Ayade care, “in 90 days, we will start the delivery of essential drugs to hard to reach areas facilitated by the use of Drone delivery systems, the first of it kind in south-south Nigeria. He assured Zipline officials of every necessary support in carrying out this assignment while thanking the entire health team for their commitment to making this innovation a success.

He expressed optimism that going forward, Zipline will be a major stakeholder in quality healthcare delivery in the state, especially when the state owned pharmaceutical company, starts running.
“When our pharmaceutical company begins operation, it will be a major producer of most of these drugs, while you handle Ariel logistics. we should be able to do 30minutes per delivery.” Sen. Ayade stated.

Also speaking, the State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Betta Edu, who described the Drone delivery system as a game changer in the health sector and the innovation as a timely one based on the current challenges of the health sector today has commended the efforts and innovation of Sen. Prof. Ben Ayade as he’s been able to use his magic touch to revamp the health sector and transform every analog system to a digital one. In her words; “In a bid to ensure that medical supplies, drugs, consumables, blood and even vaccines get to our health centres/facilities right on time and in their right potent form, we’ve found it necessary to introduce this innovation into our health system putting into consideration the numerous access challenges the state is facing today. These Drones will make the delivery of health products convenient and fast as many lives will be saved as a result of this. We’ll immediately align it with the State’s health dashboard and all proceedings will be monitored to enable us know which health facility is lacking what to avoid stock out.

“Cross Riverians should expect the best from this administration always indeed for Governor Ben Ayade Health comes first second and third before anything else.”

Zipline’s Senior Vice President in charge of Africa Operation Mr Daniel Marfo on his part commended Governor Ayade’s giant strides in the health sector and that of his amiable and assiduous Commissioner for Health Dr Betta Edu while pledging his company’s commitment to sustaining the tempo he has seen in the state. “Let me on behalf of my team say we are most pleased with your dynamic vision of ensuring that Cross River State leapfrogs the tradition and norms by leaving the analog way of transporting medical products and moving into the 22nd century using technology. We will achieve positive results with a mandate to cover the entire State and country within a short time.” he said.