The government is exploring the use of drones to deliver medical supplies and transport laboratory samples to hard-to-reach communities, particularly in Kalangala District, where boat ambulances can consume millions of shillings in fuel daily.
Dr Charles Ayume, the State Minister for Health in charge of Primary Healthcare, said drone technology could reduce the cost and time involved in delivering essential medical supplies to health facilities scattered across the district’s islands.
Ayume said the initial phase would focus on transporting HIV testing kits and other medical consumables, with plans to expand the service to include blood products needed to manage emergencies involving mothers and children.
“Blood is very important in the community. We need to be able to deploy blood for reproductive, maternal and child health cases,” Ayume said.
Kalangala comprises about 84 islands, making access to healthcare challenging, particularly for patients requiring urgent medical attention.
Ayume said a single boat ambulance journey between the islands and the mainland could consume about 300 litres of fuel, while repeated emergency referrals involving children with anaemia, accident victims and mothers experiencing obstructed labour could push daily fuel expenditure to nearly Shs8 million.
He said the government’s long-term plan was to strengthen healthcare services within the islands by equipping facilities with X-ray machines, establishing blood banks and ensuring adequate staffing.
Where facilities lack essential supplies, drones could provide a faster and potentially cheaper means of delivering them.
“Our plan should not be bringing people to Kalangala. We should be building capacity on Kalangala and deploying consumables and blood,” Ayume said.
The minister said the Ministry of Health would conduct cost-benefit analyses to establish the financial viability of the technology before presenting its findings to Parliament’s Health Committee for consideration in developing policy.
He added that the drones would run on rechargeable batteries, with charging points established at designated locations to reduce dependence on fuel-powered transport.
However, Ayume said drone operations would require regulatory approval and compliance with established procedures.
Operators would need clearance from the relevant authorities, including the Civil Aviation Authority and the UPDF Air Force, while guidelines would govern the importation and use of the equipment.
The initial flights are expected to operate during the day, with flight durations estimated at between one hour and one and a half hours, depending on the route and operating conditions.
Ayume said Uganda’s efforts to improve the transportation of medical samples from remote areas dated back to 2011, when the country began exploring ways to move laboratory specimens to the Central Public Health Laboratories using motorcycles and buses.
The proposed drone system is expected to build on those efforts by improving the movement of medical supplies and reducing delays in delivering essential healthcare services to remote communities.
Dr Charles Kiyaga, programmes director at the National Health Laboratory and Diagnostic Services (NHLDS), said drones would address longstanding challenges in transporting samples from areas where conventional methods are expensive or inefficient.
“We are happy that the day has come that we can fly a drone from here to Kalangala, or it can move to quite a number of places depending on how you want to move,” Kiyaga said.
He said the initiative followed years of efforts to strengthen the country’s sample transportation network, particularly in areas with difficult terrain and limited transport options.
Uganda established its National Sample Transport System in 2011 with 19 hubs, mainly regional referral hospitals and selected district hospitals. The network has since expanded to 100 hubs connected to about 3,000 lower-level health facilities across the country.
Kiyaga said the network provides more than 95 per cent national coverage but still faces challenges reaching some communities, particularly those on islands.
He said the government and its partners began exploring drone technology in 2015, but earlier attempts stalled because some proposed systems had limited flight ranges.
“We want a drone that can move from here to Kalangala and back,” Kiyaga said, adding that preparations for the latest system had taken nearly four years.
According to Kiyaga, the operation had secured approvals from aviation, security and other regulatory agencies to conduct flights beyond the operator’s line of sight.
During the launch, the drones transported medical supplies and specimens, including 100 HIV viral load testing kits and 550 dried blood spot (DBS) bundles destined for Kalangala.
Kiyaga said another flight returned with 256 samples collected from a health facility, demonstrating the system’s capacity to deliver supplies and retrieve specimens within a shorter period.