A half-a-million pound investment in pharmacy services at Chorley and South Ribble and the Royal Preston Hospitals, part of Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, will see robots dispensing medicines.

The automated system promises to improve patient safety by reducing dispensing errors.

Automated Dispensing Systems are becoming more and more common in UK hospital pharmacies, according to hospital bosses.

It is claimed the robots improve the accuracy of the dispensing process, provide quicker supplies of medicines to patients, improve stock control and reduce wastage.

Rob Yates, director of Professional Support Services, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: "This will be the biggest change to the delivery of our services in over 20 years.

"It will allow automated dispensing for around 80 per cent of our prescriptions.

"Robots will be installed at Chorley and South Ribble Hospital and Royal Preston Hospital.

"The technology allows overnight dispensing and we can even access the system remotely for out of hours supply.

"The robots use bar-codes to identify medicines and we expect to have them up and running by July 2008."

He added: "The streamlining of routine duties in the pharmacy will see more of our staff providing medicines management support at ward level to offer assistance to nursing staff and patients."