A new state-of-the-art pharmacy robot unveiled at Bradford Teaching Hospitals today will cut dispensing errors and free up pharmacy staff to go onto the wards and support patient care.

The robotic pharmacy – which looks like a very large vending machine and cost £130,000 – will lead to improved safety and reduce the medicines bill at the Bradford Royal Infirmary, according to hospital bosses.

Director of Pharmacy at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, David Smith, said: “As well as improving the speed at which medicines can be dispensed, the robot will also free up huge amounts of staff time which would otherwise need to be spent locating drugs by hand.

"This will mean our pharmacy staff can spend more time on the wards, improving the service we offer to our inpatients."

The robotic unit memorises where it has stored up to 20,000 packets of drugs so it can retrieve them quickly and efficiently.

This will also help with stock control by memorising expiry dates and selecting the medicines with the closest date first to cut waste.

“It’s a complete change to our working practice, but one which is working very well and providing great benefits to patients and staff.”

When drugs are delivered to the hospital their barcode is scanned prior to them being fed by hand into the appropriate storage channel on the machine.  When the prescription comes into the pharmacy, a member of pharmacy staff types in the details of the medicine required which the robot then picks and takes via a conveyor belt to one of four assistants dropping it down a chute and into a tray. The assistant then checks the drugs are correct before bringing them to a pharmacist who re-checks the prescription before sending it out to the wards.

Chief executive, Miles Scott, said: “The launch of the new robot is part of the Foundation Trust’s continued commitment to investing in new and innovative ways of delivering improved hospital services.”

The system can also cope with power failures due to its internal backup power source.