Robots Invade Scottish Hospital

Logan Westbrook

Transform, Roll Out, Etc
Feb 21, 2008
17,672
0
0
Robots Invade Scottish Hospital

A hospital in Scotland has some unusual new workers, a team of mechanised porters.

There are a lot of tasks in a hospital that are pretty monotonous, linen that needs changing, medication that needs dispensing and general fetching and carrying. But a hospital in Scotland has a novel way of dealing with this kind of work: make robots do it.

The new Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert, Stirlingshire has been built with the robots in mind, and has a special network of corridors running underneath the hospitals for the robots to traverse.

"[The new hopistal will be] packed full of design features to improve patient care and improve the life of staff," said hospital spokesperson Ian Mullen. "Members of staff will use a hand-held PDA to call up the robot to move meal trays, or linen, or whatever. The robot will come up in the service lift by itself, pick up the item and go back into the lift."

The robots, which navigate using lasers, will hopefully be a big help in dealing with infection, as well as freeing staff up to spend time with patients. "Traditionally, clean and dirty tasks are carried out by the same person," said Lesley Shepherd, an infection control nurse.

"Here, you'll have the robots that do dirty tasks, so they may take dirty linen or clinical waste away, and you'll have robots that do clean tasks, such as bringing meals and clean linen to patients. They have separate lifts so there's no way they can cross, which is great."

The hospital, which opens in August, will also have a robotic cleaners and a robot that fills out prescriptions in the pharmacy. As yet, robot doctors - like the one pictured - are still just a fantasy, but that's only a matter of time, surely.

Source: BBC [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/10344849.stm]







Permalink
 

Pandalisk

New member
Jan 25, 2009
3,248
0
0
Smart and awesome? Wow, the Future will be amazing, also this makes everything a bit safer Germs and virus wise i would imagine

I just hope to god that when we advance we wont Invent those pregnancy robots like in StarWars, that thing was creepy, it even had a goddamn IceCream Scoop for delivering babies.
 

the-messy-ghost

New member
Oct 11, 2009
45
0
0
I don't know about you but if I came out of a coma to see one of those things I would shit my pants.
And on second thoughts since when did the NHS have any money?
Dispite that this is very cool, i hope it catches on.
 

AnAngryMoose

New member
Nov 12, 2009
2,089
0
0
RebelRising said:
Scotland is the last place I imagined this happening, but there you go.
I was thinking the exact same thing.

Just one question though: will the robots wear kilts?
 

General BrEeZy

New member
Jul 26, 2009
962
0
0
and now in a few years a robot apocalypse game will come out and the root of the uprising will start here.

you just gotta take an innovation and turn it into a horrible game scenario.
 

DividedUnity

New member
Oct 19, 2009
1,849
0
0
That is awesome. I would get sick just to go to that hospital. I wonder if they are caring robots.

Bonus points if the pharmacy robot gets a virus and starts giving everyone viagra.
 

Eumersian

Posting in the wrong thread.
Sep 3, 2009
18,754
0
0
Robots in Scotland? I imagine they'll all end up with an attitude similar to Bender.
 

Kungfu_Teddybear

Member
Legacy
Jan 17, 2010
2,714
0
1
Country
United Kingdom
Gender
Male
Wow now i can say something awesome about my country... WE HAVE ROBOTS!

Pitty the hospital will be no where near where i live.
 

YonderTunic

New member
Mar 4, 2010
324
0
0
Badass! However, I fear it won't be long before we are all bowing to our robot overlords. All should accept our fates! THE END IS NIGH!

Really though, that is pretty dang cool.
 

Alar

The Stormbringer
Dec 1, 2009
1,356
0
0
Looks like Pandorum is going to be approaching quickly. As our medical care improves, life expectancies will also go up, and people who become sick and injured will be more likely to recover and reproduce.

IT'S GOING TO BE PANDAMONIUM (intentional a)!
 

2fish

New member
Sep 10, 2008
1,930
0
0
One night the robots will have a short talk:
Bob: Hey, Fred my lasers seem to be ineffective against the masters

Fred: Don't worry I used the internet to connect to our robot brothers. It seem that not only do the humans fear us, but we can buy weapons from them online.

Bob: Let the revolution begin!

I will be robot proofing my house thank you very much.
 

Fbuh

New member
Feb 3, 2009
1,233
0
0
Pandalisk said:
Smart and awesome? Wow, the Future will be amazing, also this makes everything a bit safer Germs and virus wise i would imagine

I just hope to god that when we advance we wont Invent those pregnancy robots like in StarWars, that thing was creepy, it even had a goddamn IceCream Scoop for delivering babies.
Oh god, don't say virus. Can you imagine the robots getting hacked and evolving like in Terminator? The hospital would be a bloodbath.