BEVERLY HILLS, May 15, (THEWILL) – Following the difficulty faced by the Cross River State Government to access some parts of the state, the government has announced plans to deploy digital drones to boost healthcare delivery.
The State Governor, Professor Ben Ayade, alias Digital, has not hidden his commitment and desire to bring quality and efficient healthcare to the doorsteps of the people of the state.
To achieve this aim, the government has introduced a number of measures to improve the health indices of the state.
These measures include the purchase of 196 mobile ambulances for all the political wards of the state.
The ambulances, which were sourced from Innoson Motors, are meant to help ameliorate the challenges faced by people in the local communities.
To complement this and to address the challenge of shortage of medicines, the government recently resorted to the use of drones to supply medicines to these facilities.
This is as a result of the difficulty in accessing certain communities across the sprawling state.
As at the last count, the state has at least 438 hard-to-reach areas, which makes it nearly impossible for residents of these communities to receive medicines in good time and condition.
These communities including Ukwa in the South and Belegete in the far north are surrounded by wide rivers and several mountains.
It takes at least eight hours of river boats, motorbikes and trekking to access these areas hence the decision to deploy drones to these communities.
To address this challenge and supply drugs and other medical essentials to these areas, the government is partnering a drone delivery company, Zipline.
Speaking Monday during the signing of Memorandum of Understanding with Zipline officials in Calabar, the state governor, Professor Ben Ayade said Cross River was playing a special role in the heath sector.
The governor said “in 90 days, we will start the delivery of essential drugs to hard to reach areas facilitated by drone delivery systems.
“I want to thank the entire team, I want to thank you for your commitment to this course and we are here to provide you all the necessary support to see that you start on a strong footing.”
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, Calapharm, starts running.
The State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Betta Edu on her part explained that the state has about 438 hard to reach areas hence the need for drones to help reach these areas.
Dr. Edu said these areas are spread across the 18 local government areas of the state with some being mountainous, riverine as well as creeks.
Edu said although the state was partnering with the drone manufacturing company for the moment, the ultimate aim is to produce drones which, she said, will generate employment and help improve the health of those who live in local areas.
“Basically today, we are signing a contract with Zipline, an international company to actually provide drone services to deliver medical supplies to very hard to reach areas in cross river state.
“We have over 438 hard to reach communities in the state: some mountainous, others riverine and even creeks. These have made local areas difficult to access. So we want to deploy the drone technology to deliver drugs, vaccines, blood products, and even the covid 19 vaccines.
“We will actually have over 100,000 drones’ deliveries in less than six months and the start date is 90 days from today. We are going to build two hubs that will be delivering points. We will have a training hub where we can produce drones like this and a hub that we can manufacture batteries that will be used for the inverted parts of the drones,” the Commissioner said.
According to her, so far, it takes quite some days to deliver drugs to communities that have very difficult terrain, given the topography of the state, explaining that in most cases, health workers find it difficult to access such communities.
On what it will cost the state to maintain the drones for the next four years, Edu said: “Zipline will provide all the infrastructure and drones and we will only pay services which a conglomerate of NGOs will supplement. We hope to pay N100,000 a moth and because we are working with a group of NGOs, they will pay some money for the maintenance.”
On his part, Daniel Mafor, Senior Drone Specialist, Zipline International Company, said the services will run into millions of dollars, explaining that his company would ensure that the partnership with the state works.
Mafor said: “We have been providing drone services to many countries for many years now. We are going to manage the drone services in the state in order to achieve the best. We are not providing security services but medical services and we promise to ensure that our services are appreciated by the people of the state.”
About the Author
THEWILL Correspondent, Aniekan Bassey has over six years experience that spans across several fields in print journalism including development communication, sexual reproductive and health rights issues, crime, climate change, social justice, business and human interest stories.
