Morecambe Bay Medical Shuttle 2

Project dates: 1 July 2022 – 31 March 2024

About the project

Morecambe Bay Medical Shuttle 2 aims to how pathology, pharmacy and histology services of three hospitals and other NHS touchpoints in the Morecambe Bay area may be optimised, through new forms of transportation.

Please Note: Funding available is the grant value awarded by Innovate UK.

Project activities

The project aims to fly remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) between Royal Lancaster Infirmary, Furness General Hospital and Westmoreland General Hospital, delivering and collecting samples between the hospitals and other touchpoints within the local NHS integrated care system, to speed up their processing and to provide better healthcare to the Morecambe Bay community that the hospitals service.

The project is split into three phases:

• Flying the RPAS solution between the three hospitals and up to 10 NHS touchpoints.
• Build on learnings from flight trials in the first phase to model how a future RPAS network could link with other NHS trusts in the Lancashire and South Cumbria Pathology Partnership network, reporting findings for potential nationwide applications to NHS England.
• Development of a scheduled service between the touchpoints, subject to relevant regulatory approvals.

Benefits

The Morecambe Bay Medical Shuttle will gather evidence to inform the potential for a nationwide roll out of similar services, which could improve the speed at which medical samples are received and tested, while contributing to net-zero targets and enhancing pathology networks of the future.

To find out more about the project, please contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s Knowledge Transfer Manager for Aviation.

Project partners

• Digital and Future Technologies
• Fuuse
• Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust