A £1.1m robotic ‘super surgeon’ is nearing its 100th operation since it first started being used in 2015.
The Da Vinci Robot is used at the Royal Blackburn Hospital and is the only one of its kind used for urological surgery in Lancashire.
The first prostatectomy (which involves the removal of the prostate gland) was carried out in June 2015 and has now reached 85 prostatectomies.
The machine has also been used to remove seven kidney cancers and will soon begin carrying out oral, head and neck surgery.
Shahid Islam, consultant urological surgeon and clinical director for urology at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, helped bring the robot to the Trust and will be speaking about its success at BusinessCloud’s ‘Transforming healthcare through technology’ conference and exhibition on November 23 in Chorley.
The robot is controlled by a surgeon on a console and has reduced the average hospital stay of around six days to 3.4.
Mr Islam said: “If you remove the cancer more precisely there’s less likelihood of further treatment.
“As well as saving money it benefits the quality of life for patients.
“We can do two prostatectomies in a day because it’s less labour intensive.
“A surgeon could only do one a day because it’s time-consuming and tiring.
“Technology benefits everybody. There’s a finite budget. If the public don’t require further radiotherapy you can do more for less.”