Drone technology reaching new heights with the Welsh Ambulance Service and partners
13.10.26
A project across the NHS is Wales aims to showcase how medical drones can be used safely and effectively to speed up the delivery of care.
Embracing technology and innovation is core to the UK Government’s Plan for Change as well as the NHS Fit for the Future mission.
A proposed Welsh NHS Medical Drone Delivery Network that would enable Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone operations could have the potential to directly deliver to these ambitions.
Public and community engagement was undertaken across Wales to understand perceptions and attitudes towards medical use drones.
The project and report, Medical BVLOS Drones: Wales and UK Perspectives - Future Flight Social Insight, found that there was strong support for NHS drone use, particularly if this achieved better services or patient outcomes.
Professor Nigel Rees, Assistant Director of Research and Innovation at the Welsh Ambulance Service and who has played a key leadership role at the Wales Drone Research & Innovation network believes that advancements in technology and the use of drones can have a positive and lasting impact on the way care is delivered.
Professor Rees said: “It has been a privilege to work with Dr Adam Packer, University of Birmingham and Snowdonia Aerospace on this project which is aligned to our longstanding NHS Medical Drone Delivery Network program seeking to enable BVLOS drone operations across Wales.
“Transparent engagement with our communities is essential to maintaining public trust and support for these technologies, ensuring they are proportionate and developed around the needs of our population.
“This work reflects our ambition to provide care for underserved and hard-to-reach communities through responsible research, development and innovation.”
The project was funded by UK Research and Innovation through the Centre for Understanding Behaviour at the University of Birmingham.
Dr Adam Packer, University of Birmingham, said: "Our research shows the public is genuinely open to medical drones improving NHS care, but that support is conditional.
“People want to see a clear, needs-driven case for how drones will improve patient outcomes, and open, honest engagement at every stage.
“We thank Professor Nigel Rees, Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust, and Snowdonia Aerospace for supporting this project, and for helping ensure public voice shapes how medical drones are developed in Wales."
The Healthcare Innovation team in Welsh Government added: “Enabling new and different ways of working between NHS Wales, industry and academia is one of the fundamental aims of our Innovation, Technology and Partnerships programme, which provided seed funding to initiate the NHS Wales Medical Drone Delivery Network in 2021.
“We welcome this project, which aims to prove how medical drones can be used safely and effectively to speed up the delivery of care.
“This will allow the technology to be adopted into future practice, based on the right evidence.”