The devices will carry doses from Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight in a trial which, if successful, will lead to drones being used for similar drops elsewhere. They will take 30 minutes to travel to the Solent, saving patients on the island a three- to four-hour round trip by ferry or hovercraft. On Tuesday, Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England, revealed the move to help mark the 74th anniversary of the health service’s creation by the post-war Labor government. “Delivering chemotherapy by drone is another great development for cancer patients and shows how the NHS will stop at nothing to get people the treatment they need as soon as possible, while reducing costs and carbon emissions,” he said. The first drone deliveries will begin “soon”, NHS England said, subject to the outcome of the last of a series of test flights on Tuesday. It plans to use the drones – electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft – to collect the drugs from Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth and fly them to St Mary’s Hospital on the Isle of Wight, where staff will collect and distribute them. The drones weigh 85 kg, have a wingspan of 5 meters and can carry up to 20 kg. The program is the result of a partnership between NHS England and technology company Apian. “This project marks a very important first step in building a network of drone corridors connecting hospitals, pathology laboratories, GP practices, nursing homes and pharmacies up and down the country,” said Alexander Trewby, CEO of Apian. If the flights prove successful, it will be much more convenient for the majority of cancer patients on the Isle of Wight who now have to travel to the mainland to receive their medication. Darren Cattell, chief executive of the Isle of Wight NHS trust, stressed that “we are still at a relatively early stage” of drone use in healthcare, but that the drone could have “radical and positive implications for both the NHS and patients around the world. United Kingdom as well as the Isle of Wight’. Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, said: “I want England to become a world leader in cancer care and using the latest technology to deliver chemotherapy by drone means patients will have faster and fairer access to treatment no matter where they live”. Meanwhile, a study has found that re-inviting patients every year to be screened for bowel cancer – the UK’s second biggest cancer killer – could speed up diagnosis and save lives. Although the proportion of people taking up the NHS invitation to be screened has risen to 67%, bowel cancer has the lowest take-up rate of all the health service’s screening programmes. New research from the University of Sheffield has shown that sending a new test kit home every year until they return could encourage 13.6% more people to do so. The study was funded by Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and published in the journal Preventative Medicine. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of CRUK, said: “Screening is an effective way to catch cancer early and save lives, but not everyone takes part equally and this contributes to health inequalities across the UK. “This study shows that sending annual test kits to non-completers could help close this gap and save lives.” The test used, the fecal immunochemical test, better known as the “FIT test”, looks for traces of blood in one’s stool. At the moment everyone in England aged 60-74 who is registered with a GP is sent one every two years. However, the government has pledged to extend the scheme to 50 to 59-year-olds and the NHS has started inviting 56- and 58-year-olds for screening. Genevieve Edwards, chief executive of Bowel Cancer UK, said: “We know that once someone has taken part in bowel cancer screening, they are more likely to do it again. It will therefore also be vital to increase investment in endoscopy and pathology staff and equipment to meet the increase in demand for early follow-up tests.”
