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By Ross Moyo
At 09:31 yesterday, two units of blood, critical morphine and methadone lifted off from Health Point’s Lanark Road base in Belgravia.
At 10:05, they landed in Marondera.
At 10:18, the same drone took off again from Marondera with blood samples, and by 10:45 it was back at Health Point’s principal laboratory at Upper East in Mt Pleasant.
That three-leg, 140km+ round trip is now Zimbabwe’s first documented long-range healthcare drone delivery loop — and Health Point just became its first private hospital client.
“Somebody’s been in a car accident and they need blood. How long does it take to get the blood there?” said Peter Annesley, Managing Director of Health Point, speaking to Technomag moments after the samples landed. “This morning the drone took off from our main hospital in Belgravia with two units of blood and critical morphine and methadone for Marondera.”
Annesley, who tracked the flight live, said the team in Marondera had a live video feed.
“We not only tracked it live, we saw it land live and the team take the products out and put the blood samples in, all real-time. Very reassuring. Very often when critical care ambulances are on the way, you’re not quite sure where they are. This unit, we knew exactly where it was.”
Why this is not a gimmick — time is clinical
Annesley made one point repeatedly: healthcare is all about time.
“Road is fine when time isn’t of the essence. Healthcare is unpredictable. You never know when someone is going to have a critical need, a heart attack, a car accident, a terrible laceration where somebody is bleeding.”
Technomag timed it. By road, Belgravia to Marondera is 75km, but with toll gates and Harare traffic, 90 minutes to 2 hours is normal. By drone — 34 minutes. The 8km shuttle between Lanark Road and Upper East, which can take 20 minutes in Harare traffic, takes under 7 minutes by air.
That time saving changes two supply chains that Health Point runs:
Supply Chain 1: Outbound — Products.
Lanark Road holds blood products and critical drugs under National Blood Service Zimbabwe protocols. Drone Solutions is now the aerial courier to move them to Marondera, Upper East, or any partner clinic.
Supply Chain 2: Inbound — Samples.
The principal laboratory for Health Point is at Upper East. Blood samples drawn in Marondera, in a roadside clinic, or in any partner district hospital, can be flown to that high-end lab for diagnosis, without building a lab in every town.
“You don’t have to be developing centres of excellence in blood testing around the country,” Annesley said. “You can take a patient’s blood anywhere — government hospital, private hospital, roadside — and get that blood sample into Harare to a high-end laboratory to help doctors remotely assist on the correct diagnosis.”
The machine behind it
The drone is a Kite Aero VTOL. Vertical take-off on four motors to 60-80m, then transition to fixed-wing forward flight. 4KG max payload with integrated scale. Dual batteries. Triple comms — LTE, Wi-Fi, satellite. Satellite is primary in Zimbabwe due to GSM gaps.
Drone Solutions says the same airframe has done thousands of deliveries in DRC, Malawi and Mozambique over four years with zero hull loss.
For Health Point, Annesley says safety due diligence was about track record and regulatory access.
“Prime mover, first of all. Somebody with initiative and confidence to identify the right product being Kite Aero. And background research into Kite Aero, and flights they’ve been doing in DRC, Mozambique and Malawi, gave us confidence they have the skill set. And of course, having the right access to authorities to get these delicate clearances.”
Those clearances include CAAZ BVLOS — Beyond Visual Line of Sight — which Drone Solutions Zimbabwe first got four to five years ago, making it the first licensed BVLOS operator in Zimbabwe, plus RPAS multirotor, RPAS aeroplane and RMT for maintenance. The drone delivery approval was added on September 7, 2026.
Not an investor, a partner
Annesley corrected Technomag on a key point: Health Point did not invest in drone technology.
“We’re not investing in drone technology. We’re partnering. Core business for us is provision of quality healthcare in our three different locations — Belgravia, Mt Pleasant and Marondera. Drone Solutions — that is their core business.”
That partnership model is what he wants to scale as HealthNet.
“As we partner with other hospitals in districts — maybe Chitungwiza, Chinhoyi and further afield — private practices, government facilities — we would like to collaborate. We are Health Point, but HealthNet. You come to Health Point to access care, but we provide a network cover through HealthNet.”
And critically, he said Lanark Road departure point is not exclusive.
“When we’re working with National Blood Services, we want to offer them the facility that our departure point at Lanark Road is available for any client. If it’s going to government, to a remote clinic, they can take off from Health Point and go to the clinic they need to, not just an exclusive Health Point corridor.”
Yesterday’s samples are already in the lab. Annesley invited Technomag to film the handover. “Would you like to go and see?”
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