teaser
Pharmacy robots installed at hospitals in Leicester are freeing staff to spend more time on wards and reducing turn around times for medicines.
Costing £300,000, each of the seven robodispensers can find and deliver 700 medicines a day at a rate of 60 an hour, as well as store 25,000 packs of drugs.
They are now up and running at Leicester Royal Infirmary and Glenfield and Leicester General Hospital, where workers say they have reduced errors and created a calmer, more pleasant working environment.
That may have been helped by giving them all a name – Samson, Delilah, Semper, Suprema, Filbert, Grace and Tiger – which were decided by staff after a competition.
The Leicester Royal Infirmary (LRI) robots – Grace, Filbert and Tiger – were installed in 2006. Samson and Delilah followed last year, and Semper and Suprema arrived at the General Hospital in November.
Steve Acres, project manager at the LRI, said: “Before, staff would be running around to find drugs, particularly at busy times. Now they can now spend more time on the wards, and the pharmacy robots help reduce the turn around time for medicines.”
The installation also involved better workflow and circulation space with new lighting, flooring, and upgrades to meet infection control and fire detection and protection.
Copyright Press Association 2008
