Directors of North Cumbria Integrated Care (NCIC) were told about the innovative new piece of kit on Wednesday at their latest board meeting.
It came as leaders announced a £4million investment package to address pressure on the trust’s emergency department, alongside a renewed commitment to attract the best and brightest in medicine to Cumbria.
Executive medical director Dr Adrian Clements told the board that since their last meeting, the trust has purchased the £3million robot-assisted surgical equipment.
The robot, set to be used in the Cumberland Infirmary’s operating theatres. (Image: NCIC)
He said: “I’m sitting on the implementation group around our robot and we are planning on the first robotic assisted surgery in North Cumbria in June of this year.”
NCIC’s surgical staff are being trained on the device, which is currently being installed in theatres on the Cumberland Infirmary site.
Dr Clements said: “We need to move at that cutting edge of medicine and we need to be delivering that cutting edge of medicine to the population of Cumbria.”
Introducing robotics to Carlisle‘s operating theatres ensures that North Cumbria does not lose pace as NHS trusts across the country are beginning to utilise these systems.
Dr Clements said that keeping abreast of the latest advancements in healthcare technology “will help us attract surgical colleagues, who are now all training on robots through their training programmes.
“So we need to have the equipment for them to join us and to deliver that high quality care.”
Dr Clements said: “There’s been a lot of hard work in the background to get that to happen and I’m grateful for NHS England’s support and the Integrated Care Board’s (ICB) support for that robot.”
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He said: “It marks us out as one of the things that we have to do to make sure that our clinicians have the right equipment in the right environment to deliver high quality care.”
Use of robotics in operating theatres have been found to improve patient outcomes.
NCIC also delivered its first thoracoscopy procedure at the Cumberland Infirmary in February.
The minimally invasive procedure, which previously saw patients travelling to Newcastle, is used to diagnose lung and pleural conditions.