New robot to dispense prescriptions at Granta Medical Practices in Sawston

A new robot to dispense prescriptions has been introduced at Granta Medical Practices in Sawston.

The new robot will increase speed of prescription requests turnaround and stock ordering, enhancing the service to Granta patients.

Previously, it would take an average of 60 seconds to locate an item in the pharmacy whereas this new automated system finds it in just 2.8 seconds. The automated dispenser is also extremely accurate at picking the right medicine.

A robot-naming competition was recently held with primary schools in the area, who were asked to come up with a name for the new robot.

The winning name ‘Toby’ came from Keighan, who attends Duxford Primary C of E School.

The primary school received £150 prize money to go towards their IT provision, thanks to Keighan’s winning name choice.

Keighan officially unveiled Toby on Friday, November 8 with outgoing South Cambridgeshire MP Heidi Allen, who will not stand in December’s General Election, and Dr James Morrow at the London Road practice.

Dr Morrow told the Cambridge Independent: “We are delighted to welcome both Keighan and Heidi to officially bring this state-of-the-art dispensing robot into service at Granta Medical Practices.

“First and foremost, it is about improving the safety and efficiency of how we dispense medications to our patients. It will also free up colleagues so that they can spend more time with patients, explaining medications and helping resolve queries.”

Complete prescriptions are checked by accuracy technicians before being ready for collection.

The automated dispenser holds around 15,000 packets of medicines and orders more stock as and when necessary automatically.

Granta is the first practice in the immediate area to use this dispensing robot. Other similar robots are used in Addenbrooke’s Hospital and Royal Papworth Hospital.