Celebrations have taken place to mark one year since robotic-assisted surgery has taken place at Conquest Hospital.
The da Vinci XI robotic-assisted surgical system, which cost £2 million, has been used by our surgery and gynaecology teams to perform 165 robotic operations so far, and it’s use in both colorectal and gynaecology surgery, was a first in the region.
It’s other milestone was in July 2024, when the first robotic colorectal operation in Sussex took place.
Mr Michail Klimovskij, Consultant Surgeon said: “It has been a year since we started robotic surgery at Conquest Hospital. Thank you to everyone who helped our robotic programme become true, including our DAS lead Dr Nick McNeillis.
“We started from absolute scratch and I would like to mention and thank the brilliant theatre team who adopted the new technology, logistics and skill set. We started from setting up the robot in 40 minutes, now we can do it in 6 minutes due to excellent teamwork which allows optimal operating list utilisation.
“We have carried out 165 robotic operations done so far. We are getting the pace – 85 cases in 2024, and now we are already 80 cases so far this year! New specialists are joining to maintain the momentum.
“The system (Da Vinci Xi) has proved to be safe and has directly impacted on better patients’ outcomes. Hospital stays have been reduced, complication rates are reduced and many more factors, all looking very promising!
“We have a number of challenges and aspirations going forward: facilitating utilisation, expanding the robotic programme of general surgery cross-site, implementing training pathways for junior colleagues – our future robotic surgeons. But we can breathe out now and say – we have achieved a milestone of sustainable multispecialty robotic surgery at the Trust.”
Currently surgeons, Michail Klimovskij and Yesar El-Dhuwaib and gynaecologist Waleed Yousef carry out robotically assisted surgery at Conquest Hospital, but others are being trained.