Retired engineer John Tebbs had part of his bowel removed using the new multi-million-pound Medtronic HUGO robot. He was diagnose with with pre-cancerous cells in the colon at the end of last year and underwent surgery on Wednesday 4 February.
The surgery was carried out by consultant colorectal and general surgeon Mr Ashish Shrestha.
The new HUGO robot is the first to be installed at the hospital. A Da Vinci robot is already being used at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital for patients needing urological surgery and a HUGO surgical robot was also installed at the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate this year.
The NHS National Cancer Plan aims to expand robotic cancer surgery from 70,000 procedures a year to 500,000 by 2035.
Mr Shrestha said: “I am delighted we can now offer robotic colorectal surgery at the William Harvey Hospital.
“This technology offers faster recovery, less pain and access to the most advanced techniques. We are very grateful to Paul for his fundraising and look forward to treating more patients.
“A huge thank you to everyone involved in delivering our first successful cases with the HUGO robot. This achievement reflects outstanding dedication across clinical teams and management.
“I would particularly like to recognise the theatre, anaesthetics and nursing teams, whose preparation made this possible. This technology enables us to deliver world‑class, minimally invasive care to our community."
Patient John Tebbs said: “I have always had an interest in engineering skills and design, so when Mr Shrestha mentioned that they had this new robot and asked if I would be his first patient, I jumped at the chance.
“It was my first operation, apart from having wisdom teeth removed many years ago, so I don’t really have anything to compare it with, but I was able to go home after two days.
“There was a chap on the ward who had the same procedure the old-fashioned way, and he had to stay for six days, so I think I definitely had a faster recovery.”
Another bowel cancer patient Paul Scrivens and his wife Karen raised £2,000 at a coffee morning, which he used to buy specialist chairs for the surgeon operating the robot. He was also able to fund two large wall-mounted screens for the theatre to allow more people to see what the surgeon sees inside the body.
Paul said: “I wanted to say thank you to the whole department who have looked after me so well.
“Without them I don’t know what might have happened. I can’t fault the whole NHS system.
“Although I wasn’t able to have robotic surgery, it’s fantastic that more patients in the future will be able to benefit from this, so we wanted to do our little bit to contribute to that.”
