ROBOTIC SURGERY REVOLUTION TO 'HELP CUT NHS WAITING TIMES'

Number of operations using trailblazing technology will rise to over half a million

- By Hanna Geissler Health Editor

HEALTH chiefs are hailing a revolution in robotic surgery that should slash recovery times and help to cut NHS waiting lists.

The trailblazing technology allows surgeons to control a robotic system to operate with extraordinary precision, reducing pain and complications for patients. And a major expansion will see the number of procedures performed this way soar from 70,000 to half a million per year over the next decade. Writing in today's Daily Express, NHS national medical director Professor Meghana Pandit says this method is "quickly becoming the norm" and will help build a health service "fit for the future".

She added: "As robotic-assisted surgery continues to develop and scale up, so does the potential to improve recovery times, increase surgical accuracy and reduce complications, in turn helping to reduce pressure across the system and cut waiting times." NHS plans will see nine in 10 keyhole surgeries - through small incisions rather than a large opening - delivered this way within 10 years, up from one in five today.

Robotic-assisted surgeries can be slightly faster than manual procedures when performed by an experienced surgeon. But the main benefit for patients is a much quicker recovery and fewer complications.

It means more patients can be treated as people are released from hospital sooner.

The Express put on surgical scrubs to watch medics perform a keyhole procedure with robotic assistance at Guy's Hospital in London - home to the UK's largest and most active thoracic surgery department. As half of a cancer patient's left lung is pulled through a golf ball-sized hole in her chest, the department's lead surgeon Tom Routledge said: "She'll be awake within half an hour, sitting up in a chair and having a cup of tea." The procedure to remove tissue containing a small tumour took around an hour and a half.