Healthcare providers and nursing mothers in Bayelsa State have expressed satisfaction with the adoption of drone services to supply drugs and other medicals to hospitals in the state.

They are upbeat that the development has boosted immunisation compliance by 97 per cent as well as addressed the challenges of drugs shortages, especially in the health facilities in the remote areas of the state.

The State Government in 2022 entered partnership with a logistics delivery company, Zipline, to enhance the preservation of crucial cold chain medications and expand the distribution of essential medical supplies to remote health facilities across the state.

They noted that the situation had facilitated more than 13,500 delivery of medical supplies including 537,000 doses of vaccines to 210 health facilities in the oil-rich state. 

Also speaking, the officer in charge of Otuokpoti Primary Heath Centre, Mrs Ase Adiogbogbo, said receiving drugs and medicals through drones help in prompt service delivery and to adequately attend to patients in emergency situations.

She said: “The experience has been wonderful; they are prompt in delivering the products, especially the vaccines we order from them. So, whenever we request, they are prompt in bringing them. Initially, we were having issues with the drones but for now, everything is good as they drop the requested items at the proper site here in the hospital before we store them in our storage facility. 

“Just like the situation of immunisation, you know this is a rural hospital, we deal mostly with nursing mothers. There have been improvements in our health-care delivery, because before now, sometimes it took great time for the vaccines to get to us and before it happened, we got out of stock. But now, there is no shortage of drugs, no complaints about abandonment of patients due to lack of drugs and immunisation services.”

The Head of Clinical Services at Kolo General Hospital in Ogbia, Dr Opukumo Alexendra, said the drone services in Bayelsa hospitals were an innovation designed to improve the healthcare needs of the people of the rural areas in the state.

Speaking with reporters, who visited some medical facilities in the remote and riverine communities in Ogbia and Yenagoa local government areas, some nursing mothers said they no longer had issues with unavailability of vaccines for children’s immunisation in the rural hospitals.

A nursing mother, Mrs Elizabeth Akpo, said at Otuokpoti Primary Heathcare Centre in Ogbia LGA that previously some of her children could not get complete doses of immunisation because the hospital always complained about unavailability of vaccines due to the difficulties in accessing Yenagoa, the state capital.

She asserted: “But the situation is now different as my children get vaccines during any of her scheduled date.

“Anytime I come, they attend to me quickly and there are always injections anytime I come, they no longer give us excuses. 

“As a farmer, I don’t have much time to wait in the hospital, that is why I am very happy with the recent healthcare attention to me and others in the hospitals.

 “The immunisation is very good; it makes the baby look very good. I barely experience small sicknesses such as malaria, stooling and measles. They fly our vaccines to the hospital from Yenagoa regularly and we are very excited.”

Alexandra said: “I can say it is the best technology so far because if you should look for any item that is not available, maybe you go to the market to look for it and it is usually not there, but you can get it as soon as you place your order and without losing time, they fly the consumables across to you.

“Zipline has rendered so much services that we can  not over-emphasize; the truth about it is that they respond quickly whenever you request. Moreover, I can say it is the safest and the best possible way to get drugs from the source.”

Also, the Immunisation Officer at Agudama/Ekpetiama General Hospital in Yenagoa LGA, Dr Agabugene Timineri, said the technological innovation was a big improvement in the health system in the state, noting that the ordered vaccines got to them in the shortest possible time within 15 minutes, compared to when they would have to travel hours to the city centre to get drugs for patients who needed emergency attention. (The Nation)