Ideas such as drones will be investigated to pandemic-proof medical deliveries.
Pandemic-proofing the way critical medical supplies are transported to regional hospitals is the focus of a new project being funded by The Hospital Research Foundation, thanks to our generous donors.
Ideas such as drones will be investigated as part of the Regional Urgent Medical Items Transport (RUMIT) Project, to ensure medications, blood samples and equipment can be delivered in a timely and efficient manner to all corners of South Australia.
With normal plane and bus transport severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, project lead Arrin Wislang from SA Health’s Rural Support Service hopes to find a long-term and reliable solution to ensure country patients are well serviced.
“Currently the six regional Local Health Networks (LHNs) in South Australia have limited ability to transport urgently required medical items including pathology samples and products, medications, blood and other urgent clinical equipment across rural and remote parts of the state,” Arrin said.
“The Rural Support Service is exploring ways to deliver these items more quickly, to ensure clinicians can provide the best possible care to country patients close to home.
“The project aims to learn from these issues (created by the COVID-19 pandemic) and create sustainable transport solutions to mitigate any risk to their delivery in the future.”
Arrin and his team thanked THRF for helping progress the project which would investigate a number of different delivery methods.
“The Rural Support Service and regional LHNs are grateful to The Hospital Research Foundation and its donors for their support, without which (we) wouldn’t have been able to undertake this stage of the project.”
