[WATCH] Robots will soon dispense medicine to Mater Dei patients

A robotic system for dispensing medicine to patients' wards will in the coming years be operating at Mater Dei Hospital.

The system, which will start being implemented in 2020, will serve to eliminate the risk of patients being given the wrong medicine or an incorrect dose, and will also save medical professionals time and effort.

Health Ministry consultant Mike Farrugia said the system - PillPick by Swisslog - would be combining computing, robots and pneumatic tubes to create a network allowing medicine to be ordered online for a patient receiving hospital treatment, with it then being delivered to the ward a few minutes later.

The first step in the process will be the conversion by robots of medicine batches, purchased by the government, into single doses. These will be packed and later sorted and stored by another robot.

After this, a different robot will receive a doctor’s prescription through Wi-Fi, and will prepare the medicine, including labelling it with a barcode identifying the patient. The packaged medicine will then be placed in a pneumatic tube and propelled to the ward the patient is staying in.

This is what the dispensing label attached to a medicine packet will look like

Once in the ward, the medicine's barcode will be scanned against the patient’s own barcode to ensure it has indeed arrived at the right person, and that it is the correct medicine.

Farrugia said the project would take three years to implement, with it first being put into place in a pilot ward at Mater Dei in 2020. Doctors, nurses, dentists, midwives and pharmacists will concurrently start receiving training on the system. After this, it will be put into effect across the remaining hospital wards, with a view to have the whole process stabilised by 2021.

He said that once the system is introduced to Mater Dei, other health institutions such as Mount Carmel Hospital will follow.

The robotic system, which has currently only yet been adopted by a small number of hospitals globally, will increase efficiency and improve safety by reducing human error, Health Minister Chris Fearne said.

Fearne highlighted that the system’s software will ensure that any medicine prescribed is adequate for the patient’s condition, and will check if there are any contraindications with other medicine that patient is taking.

It will also prevent the risk of medicine being wasted or expiring while in storage.

“There will be two big robots in the stores supplying Mater Dei, two others in its pharmacy department, and another 18 robots around the hospital,” he said.

He also noted that the €11 million cost of the project will be covered by the company which won the tender, and the government would only be paying if the system ends up saving it money. If the government saves no money, the tender winner agreed it won’t be receiving any payment.