The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7240 p359
15 March 2003

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Royal launch for Royal Free robots

A robotic dispenser at the Royal Free Hospital, London, was officially launched by the Duke of York this week. The dispenser is part of a scheme to install £1m-worth of automated equipment at hospitals in Camden and Islington.

The duke and other guests visited the Royal Free on 11 March to open its new outpatient pharmacy, part of events marking the 175th anniversary of the hospital, which originally opened as a dispensary. The centrepiece of the outpatient unit is an ARx Rowa Speedcase automated dispensing robot capable of storing 10,000 items.

John Farrell, head of pharmacy at the Royal Free, explained to The Journal that four automated dispensers are to be installed at hospitals in Camden and Islington. Mr Farrell is also head of pharmacy at University College London and the Whittington hospitals and for community services provided by primary care trusts in the area, the equivalent of the former district pharmaceutical officer role. The Royal Free will have a second robot in its main inpatient dispensary, with a capacity of 18,000 items, and similar machines will be put into UCLH and the Whittington by May.

"We are going heavily into automation. It gives us an opportunity to reprofile our pharmacy services and move forward in clinical areas," he said. As well as freeing staff time, automated dispensers also have the advantage of requiring only a quarter of the space needed for conventional dispensary shelves to hold equivalent stock levels. At the Royal Free, this has allowed the outpatient pharmacy to be installed in a former Lloyds Bank outlet that would have been too small to use otherwise.

Around 70 per cent of dispensary stock can be held inside the robot. Each item is barcode scanned on insertion and can be retrieved and delivered to the dispensing benches in as little as nine seconds. Mr Farrell said: "Workflow analyses have shown that staff can spend up to 60 per cent of their time simply retrieving products from shelves. Automation allows staff to concentrate more on the dispensing process and makes the dispensary a calmer, safer and hassle-free area."

Most acute patients in the hospitals are now prescribed their medicines in patient packs. These are held in bedside lockers and can be administered by the patients themselves or by nursing staff. Pharmacy technicians maintain these stocks, which are used to speed up discharge times. This increased use of patient packs fits in well with automated dispensing, Mr Farrell said.

Further developments for the automated dispensers might include a refrigerated unit, the inclusion of Controlled Drugs, and a labelling option. Integration of hospital-wide electronic prescribing with automated dispensing, following pharmacist screening of prescriptions, may also follow.