Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will take steps to deploy drone technologies carrying (a) defibrillators and (b) other emergency medical equipment.

The Government is committed to innovation in drones and other growth sectors, and work is ongoing across Government, including between the Department of Health and Social Care and the Civil Aviation Authority, to support the safe and effective introduction of drones into medical logistics.

Last year, the Department of Health and Social Care, working in collaboration with the Department for Transport, Innovate UK, and UK Research and Innovation, supported five pilot projects, allocating them a total of £500,000 to explore the use of drones in the National Health Service. Given the potential of drones to improve how the NHS delivers patient care, the Department of Health and Social Care is supportive of trials that explore the use of drones in medical logistics.

Recent drone trials in the NHS have included pathology deliveries in Cornwall, blood deliveries in London, and the transport of chemotherapy to the Isle of Wight, where drone use reduced journey times from four hours by road and sea to a 30-minute flight

The National Institute for Health and Care Research has also funded a study into the use of drones to deliver defibrillators in emergency simulations, with more information available at the following link:

https://www.nihr.ac.uk/news/drones-could-deliver-defibrillators-cardiac-arrest-patients-uk

Currently, there are no plans to deploy drone technologies carrying defibrillators outside of trials. The Department of Health and Social Care continuously reviews the available evidence surrounding the use of drones in medical logistics and is supportive of new trials, including those involving defibrillators, to further build this evidence base.