AP ties up with Red Wing to deliver medicines and blood to tribal areas in Paderu via drones

Amaravati: In a significant step towards improving healthcare access in remote tribal regions, the AP State Health Department has entered into an agreement with the ‘Red Wing’ organisation to deliver emergency medical services through drones.

The initiative aims to transport medicines and blood units to hospitals in hard-to-reach areas, with operations to be centred at Paderu in Alluri Seetharamaraju district.

The memorandum of agreement was signed between Health and Family Welfare Commissioner Veerapandian and Red Wing representative Kundan Madireddy.

What will the drone health service provide?

Under proof of concept, the organisation will provide its services free of cost for the first six to seven months. Red Wing has already been operating similar drone-based medical delivery services successfully in Arunachal Pradesh.

With Paderu functioning as the hub, drone services will cater to primary health centres and community health centres located within a 60-80 km radius. The drones are equipped with cold-chain facilities to prevent spoilage of medicines and vaccines and have a payload capacity of around 2 kg.

Drones will also transport samples from patients

Apart from delivering medicines and blood units, the drones will also transport blood, stool and urine samples collected from patients back to laboratories for testing during return flights.

Health Commissioner Veerapandian said the drone operations are expected to commence by the end of next month.

The next step involves linking Vizag KGH with Paderu

Officials noted that transporting medicines by road in the hilly tribal regions is often time-consuming and challenging.

To save lives during emergencies, the coalition government has prioritised the use of drone technology. Plans are also underway to expand the service in future to enable the transport of medicines from King George Hospital (KGH) in Visakhapatnam to Paderu.