Steven Pinto, Ctrl Robotics

Netcare Milpark Hospital in Parktown North is one of the oldest private hospitals in South Africa. It was also the first private hospital to become an accredited, Level 1 trauma unit, which means it is busy 24/7. So while it’s not unusual to see doctors, nurses, support staff, patients and visitors in the passages, there’s a surprising new addition: two script delivery robots, or BellaBots, imported and managed by Ctrl Robotics.

“At Netcare, there are people who push trolleys around and make medicine deliveries all day. It’s a task that is incredibly difficult to coordinate and do efficiently as there are only a certain number of people and trolleys,” says Steven Pinto, CEO of Ctrl Robotics. “But you can’t just add more people and make the problem go away – it doesn’t work like that. So, what happens is that nurses are sometimes responsible for getting medicine for the patients because deliveries are, for whatever reason, just not happening fast enough.”