Chris Whitehouse, a political consultant and expert on medical technology policy and regulation at Whitehouse Communications, an advisor to MedTech suppliers, chair of the Urology Trade Association, and governor of the Anscombe Bioethics Centre, reports on major plans for the roll-out of robotics across the NHS in England.
Millions of patients will benefit from cutting-edge NHS robotic surgery over the next decade as part of radical plans to cut waiting times, claims NHS England.
Half a million operations will be supported by robotics every year by 2035 – up from 70k in 2023/24 – according to NHS projections.
Nine in ten 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 one in five today with robotic surgery being the default for many operations.
The NHS also expects to see increasing numbers of emergency operations using the space-age tech – which can be more precise than the human hand.
The new NHS England forecast follows the publication of its first ever national guidance on how robotic programmes should be delivered.
Sir Jim Mackey, NHS chief executive, said: “The NHS has pledged to return to shorter elective waiting times by 2029 and we are using every tool at our disposal to ensure patients get the best possible treatment.
“Expanding the use of new and exciting tech such as robotic surgery will play a huge part in this. Not only does it speed up the number of procedures the NHS can do, but it also means better outcomes, a faster recovery and shorter hospital stays for patients.”
Compared to traditional keyhole surgery, robotic surgery allows greater dexterity and is easier to manipulate as the instruments are controlled by a surgeon at a console using a 3D camera. In orthopaedic robot procedures, the robot is programmed to perform elements of the procedure
Patients undergoing surgery involving robots are able to recover quicker and be discharged sooner, with some bladder cancer patients leaving hospital in just five days – half the expected time with traditional open surgery.
Five systems for soft tissue procedures – such as hernia repair, removal of tumours, and gallbladder removal, and six for orthopaedic surgery – such as full and partial knee replacement procedures and hip replacements – have already received conditional approval from NICE while they undergo further evaluation, meaning the use of this technology can be expanded further across the NHS to help thousands more patients.
The Author used AI in preparing this article, comments upon or questions about which can be addressed to chris.whitehouse@whitehousecomms.com.
