Remote robo op

Doctor in UK treats patient on Gibraltar

- BY HANNA GEISSLER Health Editor

Doctor controls the robot; patient Paul and his partner Lucia inset

A SURGEON in London operated on a prostate cancer patient 1,100 miles away on Gibraltar, in the first such UK remote robotic surgery.

Paul Buxton, who is from Somerset and moved to the British Overseas Territory 40 years ago, said he was happy to be the medical “guinea pig”.

He added: “A lot of people actually said to me ‘You're not going to do it, are you?’. I thought ‘I’m giving something back here’.”

Paul, 62, was diagnosed with cancer after Christmas and expected to join an NHS waiting list in England.

The only public hospital on The Rock is St Bernard’s at Europort.