Uganda’s Ministry of Health has tested drones to carry patient samples and medical supplies between the Kalangala islands in Lake Victoria and laboratories in Kampala. The ministry said in an X post on 23 October that teams from its National Health Laboratory and Diagnostic Services Department “carried out DRONE tests in #Kalangala to assess readiness for potential medical deliveries to island communities.”
Kalangala’s Resident District Commissioner, Fred Badda, said on X that he and other leaders had “officiated the maiden trip of the medical drone at Kaala Playgrounds which will help in transporting medical samples from our health facilities across Kalangala to Butabika.” The ministry said the “flight data generated will be used to guide preparations for future deployment.”
In brief
- Uganda’s Ministry of Health has test-flown drones between Butabika in Kampala and Kalangala district on Lake Victoria.
- The drones are meant to carry patient samples from island health centres to laboratories in Kampala, a trip that can now take days.
- The project lead says the route takes about one and a half hours and could drop to about an hour.
The test route took about 90 minutes
Prossy Mbabazi, who is in charge of the drone project at the Ministry of Health, told the Daily Monitor that the tests were meant to check the drones against the manufacturer’s specifications before an official launch. “We have been testing to see if what the manufacturer said is exactly what it does, and today we have been able to see that it can come and go back as speculated,” she said.
The drone flew from Butabika to the Koome Islands and then to Kalangala. “It left Butabika at 11:00 and reached Koome Islands at 11:28, and by 12:33 it was in Kalangala. So we give it one and a half hours, and if it gets used to the route, it shall use about an hour,” Mbabazi said.
She said the project would start by supplying the materials needed to collect patient samples and by flying the samples to laboratories. “We are looking forward to seeing that on Saturday this week we supply the first materials, and on Tuesday next week we expect to launch it in Kampala to officially begin its duty,” she told the Monitor. That points to a first supply on 24 October and a launch on 27 October.
Samples now take days to reach the lab
Frank Kisakye, in charge of Kalangala Health Centre IV, told the Monitor that the centre collects samples from 16 health facilities across the district. A vehicle then takes them to laboratories in Kampala. “When it comes on Tuesday to pick the samples, they would reach Butabika laboratories on Thursday, taking a long time to get results and depriving patients of timely treatment,” he said of tests such as HIV and hepatitis.
“Now, with the drone, we shall spend like one hour to reach these samples to Butabika laboratories and get results on the same day, and patients get their treatment,” Kisakye said.
Mark Lwanga, the Buligo chairperson on Buggala Island, described the current chain. “When they get a sample from a patient on the far islands, they use boats to transport it to Kalangala Health Centre IV as a collection point, from where the car gets it to take it to Kampala. That’s a long process that involves risks,” he told the Monitor.
Four health centres are first in line
Badda told the Monitor that the first deployment will cover the Jaana, Bufumira, Kyamuswa and Bubeke health centres. “We expect the drone to reach every island in the future,” he said. According to the Monitor, the project is managed by Drone Plus, which mapped routes and collected coordinates for health facilities in Kalangala the week before the tests.
Same-day results are the real gain
The value here is not speed for its own sake. Kisakye’s description shows the gap: a sample picked up on Tuesday reaches the laboratory on Thursday, and only then does the wait for results begin. If a drone can close that gap to about an hour, a patient on a remote island could get an HIV or hepatitis result, and start treatment, days sooner. That matters most for people whose only link to the mainland is a boat.
The model is close to the one starting in London, where drones now fly samples between Great Ormond Street and nearby labs. The difference is that in Kalangala the alternative is water and road, not city traffic.
A test flight is not yet a working service
The ministry’s own wording is careful. It talks about “potential” deliveries and uses the flights to guide “future deployment”. A regular service will depend on the drones flying reliably in all weather over open water, on safe handling of samples, and on the laboratories turning results around on the same day. None of those details has been published yet.
Drone delivery is being tested and debated elsewhere too, from the UK’s Chorley trial to calls in Massachusetts to pause drone delivery permits. For more stories like this, see TSN’s Tech for Good hub.
Sources
- Ministry of Health Uganda (@MinofHealthUG): X post on drone tests in Kalangala, 23 October 2026
- Fred Badda, Kalangala RDC (@fbadda1): X post on the maiden drone trip, 23 October 2026
- Daily Monitor (David Ssekayinga): Ministry tests drones to deliver medical supplies, samples in Kalangala, 23 October 2026
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