The World’s Largest medical drones service company, Zipline, says it will start delivering medical supplies via drones in the northern part of Ghana by end of February
This was disclosed by Simon Aseno, the Community Lead for Zone three Zipline Technology at Vobsi in the North East Region.
The centre, which would be run by an all Ghanaian crew of engineers, health professionals and logistics personnel, would deliver 148 medical products including; blood and life-saving medicines to about 500 health facilities across the Savannah, Northern, North East and Upper East Regions.
He gave the assurance that irrespective of the location of the operation Centre, all the designated points of delivery would be served.
He noted that within the 80-kilometre radius, Bawku, parts of Garu, Navrongo, Fumbisi and all places that were farther away from the centre were covered, adding that the radius of coverage actually allows Zipline to reach many health facilities.
The Zone Leader said one of the biggest challenges the country faced was access to vital medicines on time, and stressed that the benefits of the service were enormous.
Simon Aseno emphasized that the most important aspect of the Technology was the speed in the delivery of medical products, and the capacity of the sick to access healthcare irrespective of their location in any part of the country.
He said there were some misconceptions among some sections of Ghanaians during the initial stages of the introduction of the concept, but indicated that people were beginning to realise the usefulness of the technology, which would help strengthen the public health system.
He said they had begun with Regional entries to ensure that Regional stakeholders were aware of the technology, and they would soon move to sensitize members of the public at the various community levels and also engage the media to spread information about the technology.
The Ghana drone service was commissioned in April 2019 when president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-addo launched the first ever medical drone delivery service in Ghana, and the largest such drone delivery network in the world, at Omenako, near Suhum, in the Eastern Region. Subsequently in September, the second drone centre was commissioned at Mampong in Ashanti region
