{"id":119660,"date":"2025-11-03T16:49:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T16:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/119660\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T16:49:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T16:49:12","slug":"the-royal-surrey-hospital-performs-10000th-robotic-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/119660\/","title":{"rendered":"The Royal Surrey Hospital performs 10,000th robotic surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark NormanBBC South East Health Correspondent <\/p>\n

\"MarkMark Norman BBC<\/p>\n

Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust has four surgical robots<\/p>\n

A hospital in Surrey has performed its 10,000th robotic-assisted surgical procedure.<\/p>\n

Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust first introduced the technology in 2009 with the installation of a da Vinci surgical system.<\/p>\n

It now operates four surgical robots across a range of specialities, including urology, gynaecology, colorectal, hepatobiliary, oesophagogastric and ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgery.<\/p>\n

The 10,000th patient was Alistair Hutchinson, 49, who underwent robotic surgery for throat cancer. He said: “It truly changed everything. I was able to receive the treatment I needed to remove the cancer \u2013 without facing the harsh side effects I had feared.”<\/p>\n

The Royal Surrey is the country’s fourth largest cancer centre, treating more than 8,000 patients each year across the South East of England. <\/p>\n

It delivers 4,000 chemotherapy treatments, almost 3,500 sessions of radiotherapy, and over 2,000 cancer surgeries annually.<\/p>\n

The Trust performed just three robotic surgeries in the first year but said the programme has grown into one of the busiest and most advanced in the country.<\/p>\n

In 2024, more than 1,500 patients benefitted from robotic surgery, with the Trust saying it performed more prostate surgeries than any other single-site hospital in the UK.<\/p>\n

Consultant Ear Nose and Throat surgeon David Walker said: “For many years we’ve been ahead of the curve in terms of driving better technologies for patients and we know that this creates better outcomes.”<\/p>\n

The robot does not replace surgeons but enhances their ability to carry out complex operations via very tiny incisions, with greater accuracy and precision. <\/p>\n

The surgeon operates the robot from a control console, performing the procedure using a minimally invasive approach, also known as keyhole surgery.<\/p>\n

Patients benefit from faster recovery, shorter hospital stays, better outcomes and less complications while it also helps the hospital improve efficiency and save bed days.<\/p>\n

\"MarkMark Norman BBC<\/p>\n

Mr Hutchinson was concerned before he was told the surgeons would be using robotics<\/p>\n

Mr Hutchinson said: “Because the throat is such a sensitive area, I was deeply concerned about the potential long-term side effects.<\/p>\n

“My children are only seven and five, and I was worried about how the treatment might affect not just me, but them too. Then I found out robotic surgery was an option.”<\/p>\n

Tim Pencavel, consultant surgeon and joint chief of service for surgery at the Royal Surrey Hospital said the majority of robotic surgeries are for cancer patients. <\/p>\n

“Our catchment area for cancer effectively is the western side of the Kent, Surrey and Sussex region. <\/p>\n

“Because of that volume of patients, it goes back to needing to help people more efficiently so that we can get more of those people through our doors.”<\/p>\n

The NHS believes millions of patients will benefit from cutting-edge robotic surgery over the next decade as part of its plans to cut waiting times.<\/p>\n

It said half a million operations will be supported by the approach every year by 2035, up from 70,000 in 2023\/24, according to NHS projections.<\/p>\n

Nine in 10 of all keyhole surgeries, such as the removal of certain organs affected by cancer, will be delivered with robot assistance within the next 10 years, up from 1 in 5 today with robotic surgery being the default for many operations.<\/p>\n

The NHS also expects to see increasing numbers of emergency operations using the technology. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark NormanBBC South East Health Correspondent Mark Norman BBC Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust has four surgical robots…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[103,397,396,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-119660","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-care","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}