Medical BVLOS Drones: Wales and UK Perspectives

Embracing technology and innovation is core to the UK Government’s Plan for Change as well as the NHS Fit for the Future mission. A proposed Welsh NHS Medical Drone Delivery Network that would enable Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone operations has the potential to directly deliver to these ambitions. Public and community engagement was undertaken across Wales to understand perceptions and attitudes towards medical use drones. This report synthesises data from Wales and UK national-level surveys as well as community focus groups with a total of 66 members of the public, providing top-level insight into responses to BVLOS medical drone uses by the NHS in Wales and the UK.

Strong support for NHS drone use was identified, particularly if this achieves better services or patient outcomes. Applications that were seen as particularly beneficial were:

• Emergency services or critical incident response
• Movement of medical products, blood samples or tests
• Logistics between NHS hospitals and sites

Publics want to see NHS drone use that is needs-driven as there may be contexts where societal benefits outweigh current concerns. Open and transparent engagement with communities is required to ensure public support, especially given specific concerns about BVLOS medical drone use by the NHS as well as wider concerns about drones at this time. There is also public concern that beneficial applications of drones through the NHS may provide a catalyst for the wider roll-out of BVLOS drones. In this scenario, there are perceived trade-offs that impact publics’ support for BVLOS drones overall. Publics desired a strong and clear case for further NHS investments in medical drone innovation if this is scaled.

Four key recommendations are as follows:

1. UK and Welsh national devolved government need to engage with the NHS as well as industry stakeholders to ensure public and patient value is realised from the potential roll-out of BVLOS drones in 2027/2028.
2. Discussions must focus on directly improving the delivery of NHS services and ensuring drone use is proportionate to realising wider benefits.
3. The ‘drones for good’ narrative needs to be challenged where it undermines wider public concerns about medical drones, and risks surfacing ‘medical washing’ claims where it may be assumed beneficial NHS use is a pathway to less desirable public sector or commercial services.
4. Targeted, open and transparent engagement with communities is required to address varying levels of public support as well as concerns specifically about BVLOS drones and their use in the NHS.