When minutes count: How Drones are Beating Traffic to Save Lives in Ghana

A rural clinic in northern Ghana runs out of blood in the middle of the night. In the past, getting an emergency supply could mean waiting until morning for a road delivery. Today, a health worker can place an order remotely and have a drone deliver the package in minutes.

This is no longer a futuristic experiment. Since Ghana launched its national medical drone programme in 2019, autonomous aircraft have become part of the country's health-supply system. By September 2025, Zipline reported that it had delivered more than eight million individual medical products in Ghana, including about 70 million vaccine doses and more than 30,000 units of blood. Ghana hosts what has been described as the world's largest national drone medical-supply system.

The last-mile problem

Ghana's health system has often faced a problem that has little to do with whether medicines exist and much more to do with whether they can reach the facilities that need them on time.

Public-health researchers refer to this as the “last-mile problem.” The final stage of a supply chain, often the shortest distance, can also be the most difficult to navigate. Poor road networks, long distances between district hospitals and outlying clinics, flooding and other weather-related disruptions can delay the delivery of medicines, vaccines and blood products. Drone logistics is designed to address precisely this gap. Instead of waiting for a vehicle to travel several hours over difficult roads, health facilities can request supplies on demand and receive them by air.

Research published on Ghana's Western North Region provides evidence that the approach can affect routine healthcare as well as emergencies. A study of 156 health facilities found that facilities served by aerial logistics experienced a 30 per cent reduction in the duration of vaccine stockouts and a 44 per cent reduction in missed opportunities for vaccination. Vaccination coverage for several vaccines was also between 13.1 and 37.5 percentage points higher in served districts. The findings suggest that the value of drone delivery may lie not only in emergency flights, but also in keeping routine health services supplied consistently.

How a delivery works

The system uses autonomous fixed-wing aircraft rather than the quadcopters commonly associated with consumer drones. The aircraft are launched from distribution centres and fly to health facilities without needing to land there.

A health worker can place an order remotely, after which staff at the distribution centre prepare the requested supplies. The drone is launched, follows its programmed route and releases the package over a designated landing area. Instead of landing, the package descends under a parachute.

This model allows medical products to bypass road traffic and difficult terrain while maintaining the existing health system's delivery points.

Ghana's network has also expanded considerably since its launch. In July 2025, Zipline said it was preparing to establish a seventh distribution centre, following the opening of its sixth centre at Anum. The company said the expansion was intended to extend coverage to underserved areas.

By September 2025, the company said its six existing centres were serving 14 of Ghana's 16 regions and 165 districts. It reported an average of about 100 deliveries a day, with daily demand sometimes exceeding 200.

The system is not just about aircraft. It depends on warehouses, inventory management, cold-chain infrastructure, dispatch software, trained personnel and coordination with health facilities. That infrastructure is arguably as important as the drone itself.

Measuring what it has changed

Some of the strongest evidence of the system's impact comes from studies of routine healthcare. In the Western North Region, researchers found significant improvements in vaccine availability and immunization outcomes following the introduction of aerial logistics. The study found that vaccination coverage increased by between 13.1 and 37.5 percentage points for several vaccines, while vaccine stockout duration and missed vaccination opportunities also fell.

The effects have also been studied in maternal healthcare. A 2025 mixed-method impact assessment examined data from 191 health facilities in Ghana's Ashanti Region between 2017 and 2022. It found a 56.4 per cent decrease in maternal deaths at facilities served by Zipline compared with facilities that were not served by the network. The study also reported increases in antenatal visits and skilled deliveries at facilities served by the system.

The findings are significant, but they should not be interpreted as proof that the drone alone caused the reduction in maternal deaths. The system operates as part of a broader health network, and factors such as the availability of medicines, skilled personnel and increased use of health facilities can all contribute to outcomes.

The lesson is therefore broader than the aircraft itself: reliable logistics can strengthen the health services that already exist.

More than emergency deliveries

The scale of the programme has also moved beyond the occasional emergency blood delivery. In 2025, the National Blood Service reported that Zipline conducted 4,314 deliveries of blood and blood products, transporting more than 5,000 units to 96 health facilities across Ghana. The service was described as particularly useful for facilities where distance and geography could delay conventional transport.

The system has also been used for vaccines and, during the COVID-19 pandemic, for transporting test samples from rural communities to laboratories. Gavi documented the use of Zipline drones to move COVID-19 samples from remote areas to laboratories in urban centres, demonstrating that the network could operate in both directions when the logistics system required it.

This flexibility is one of the strongest arguments for treating drone logistics as health infrastructure rather than simply as a new form of transportation.

What gets in the way

Drones do not eliminate every problem associated with medical supply chains.

Flights can be affected by severe weather, including heavy rain and strong winds. Night operations also require appropriate safety procedures. And while the technology can bypass poor roads, it cannot replace the warehouses, cold-chain systems, health workers and financing required to make a medical supply chain function.

The programme has also attracted public discussion about the role of a private technology company in Ghana's public health system, including questions surrounding contracts, sustainability and the broader implications of relying on technology providers for essential health logistics.

There is another question that deserves greater attention: cost. The success of a drone network cannot be measured only by the number of deliveries it makes. Policymakers must also consider the cost of maintaining distribution centres, aircraft, software, personnel and supporting infrastructure, and how those costs compare with conventional transportation. The long-term sustainability of the model will depend not only on whether it works, but also on whether the health system can continue to finance and integrate it effectively.

A model, not a destination

Ghana's experience has attracted international attention because it demonstrates how autonomous logistics can be integrated into a national healthcare system.

Rwanda pioneered national-scale medical drone delivery with Zipline in 2016, initially focusing on emergency blood supplies. Ghana subsequently developed one of the world's largest national medical-drone networks, expanding the model to vaccines, medicines, blood products and other health supplies.

The model has since attracted interest beyond Ghana. Zipline's operations have expanded to other African countries, while international health organizations have continued exploring drones and other technologies as tools for reaching communities that are difficult to serve through conventional supply chains.

Gavi's current immunization strategy also places renewed emphasis on solving last-mile delivery problems, including through technology and private-sector logistics partnerships.

Ghana's experience therefore offers a lesson that extends beyond drones. The real innovation is not simply putting a medical package on an aircraft and sending it into the sky. It is creating a system in which health workers can request what they need, logistics teams can respond quickly, supplies can remain properly managed, and patients can receive care without geography becoming an unnecessary barrier.

The next stage could involve expanding the range of products transported and making greater use of the network for laboratory samples and other health-logistics needs. Ghana has already demonstrated that drones can transport medical samples, suggesting possibilities for a more integrated, two-way health logistics system.

Sometimes the most useful innovation in public health is not a new drug or a new device. It is a faster, more reliable way of getting the medicines, vaccines, blood and other essential supplies that already exist to the people who need them.

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