A £650,000 drugs robot at a hospital is still not fully operational four months after it was launched.
The robot, named Tom and Jerry, was due to improve the pharmacy department at Wexham Park Hospital in Slough, but it is yet to be fully operational as it is being implemented in phases.
The Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust invested in the robot to load and dispense medicines to patients and wards to improve patient safety, after concerns were raised by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) about the number of medicine errors.
A spokeswoman from the trust said: “Since April, the pharmacy robot has been operating every day. The robot is capable of managing a number of different functions, and these were planned to be phased in as part of the project.
“In order to ensure that each function of the system was fully operational, extensive testing has been carried out at each stage. The final phase has been implemented and is currently undergoing testing.”
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