Inside The Drone That Carries Blood: Why Health Point Chose Kite Aero

By Ross Moyo
Inside The Drone That Carries Blood: Why Health Point Chose Kite Aero
By Ross Moyo

Interview pull-aside with Peter Annesley, MD Health Point.

Q: What was in today’s flight exactly?

Some blood products, for blood transfusions. The drone took off from Lanark Road with bloods and drugs and flew to Marondera and delivered. Then on return, it brought critical blood samples back to Upper East for our laboratory.

Q: How did you track it?
We had the team in Marondera with live stream feed. We actually saw it land live, team take products out, put blood samples in, all real-time and live. With CCTV at land sites in future, we can see exact status at any one time. Compared to road courier, we knew exactly where it was.

Q: Upper East and Lanark shuttle — how does that work?

Lanark holds blood products and critical drugs. If something is needed in Marondera, dispatched from Lanark to Marondera. When drone is in Marondera, it will route directly to Upper East for lab because principal lab is at Upper East. So two different supply chains — deliver products, bring back samples.

Q: Why not build your own drone team?

We’re not investing in drone technology. We’re partnering. Core business is provision of healthcare and quality healthcare in our three locations. Drone Solutions — that is their core business. We’ve invested our time working with them to prove concept. Great deal of learnings from maiden journey.

Q: Your data:
Payload: 4KG max, scale-verified.

Range: 150-170km operational (200km max) per battery.

Time Harare-Marondera: 34 mins air vs 90-120 mins road.

Comms: LTE + Wi-Fi + Satellite (satellite primary).

Redundancy: dual batteries, dual motors, dual electronics.

Security: fingerprint ID to open parcel, CAAZ BVLOS approved.