AIIMS Rajkot: Drones to collect samples, drop medicines

Feb 24,2024

Rajkot: AIIMS in Rajkot that will be formally inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday is planning to use drones to provide healthcare service in remote areas of Saurashtra. The hospital is in an advanced stage of talks with two service providers for drones.

After its inauguration, the hospital will start the indoor service with 250 beds from March first week. It expects to be fully operational with 750 beds by December-end.

The drones will have a flying range of 50km. In case of emergency, the drones will be able to transport samples of patients form a CHC or a PHC after the doctors there collect the samples. The drones will have an inbuilt refrigerator and they will also be able to deliver medicines. A drone can carry a weight up to 5kg.

The hospital is also planning to have three helipads for emergency service, a facility for air ambulance and arrangements for VIP visits. “The drone service will be of great help for people living in remote areas,’’ said AIIMS Rajkot executive director Dr C D S Katoch on Friday. He was addressing media persons in Rajkot.

He said doctors and nursing staff had already started sitting in the IPD. “We are prepared for the teething problems that we expect in the initial stage,’’ said Katoch.

The indoor service will start with 14 specialty departments. There will be 23 OTs and the hospital will have state-of-the-art modular OTs in disciplines like orthopaedics, general surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, ENT, ophthalmology and dental procedures.

Diagnostic services like MRI, ultrasonography, digital x-ray and an integrated laboratory will be there. There will be a blood storage facility and the hospital has applied for a blood bank. The charges of all the services will be at par with that of AIIMS New Delhi.

Source: Healthworld