Thank you for waiting, the robot will see you now. Nine in ten keyhole operations won’t need a human surgeon in the room within the next decade, according to the NHS. One in five operations are already carried out by robots, guided remotely, to improve outcomes while cutting costs.

Science fiction is becoming surgical fact because robotic-assisted surgery can mean smaller incisions, reduced scarring and quicker recovery. There’s no need to take my word for it: Sir Jim Mackey, the chief executive of the NHS, said: “We are using every tool to ensure patients get the best possible treatment. Expanding the use of new tech, such as robotic surgery, will play a huge part.”

Wes Streeting, the health and social care secretary, added: “I know how important this is. The NHS saved my life from kidney cancer with an operation led by a world-class surgeon being helped by a robot.”

Perhaps we should give one a go in Downing Street.

Back to business, surgical robots cost between £500,000 and £1.5 million. While some taxpayers may be sceptical about injecting more money into the NHS, investors in healthcare can help to capitalise on the new technology needed to accelerate progress.

For example, Intuitive Surgical (stock market ticker: ISRG) is the world’s biggest maker of medical robots and a top ten holding in the £1.5 billion investment trust Worldwide Healthcare (WWH). The latter is one of my longest-held assets — I transferred shares from a paper-based broker in March 2014, when they were trading at £1.35, allowing for a subsequent stock split.

They finished trade on Friday at £2.97 but it is only fair to ’fess up that they have not delivered healthy returns recently. Worldwide Healthcare shrank shareholders’ capital by 16 per cent over the past year, after falling 12 per cent over five years, but remained positive over the last decade, with 71 per cent growth.

Sad to say, the dividend yield of less than 0.8 per cent does not even match the fund managers’ annual fees of 0.9 per cent. Whose money is it, anyway?

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No wonder Worldwide Healthcare shares are priced 6 per cent below their net asset value (NAV) and have been targeted by the corporate raider Saba Capital. Whether that will improve performance remains to be seen, but this long-term investor intends to continue holding for globally diversified exposure to a growth sector.

As populations tend to become older and wealthier, more money is being spent on keeping us healthier. Advances in medical science are saving lives from illnesses that would have been hopeless not so long ago. On a less dramatic level, fewer folk these days are willing to accept that what cannot be cured must be endured.

All those trends played a part in my decision to invest in the world’s biggest pharmaceutical company, Eli Lilly (LLY), when I paid $441 per share in July 2014, as reported here at that time. They hit $972 earlier this year before slipping back to $762 on Friday but remain my sixth-most valuable shareholding.

The success of Eli Lilly’s weight-loss drugs, Mounjaro and Zepbound, helped this investor to put on pounds in a nice way. Less happily, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recently ruled that its drug, Donanemab (sold under the brand name Kisunla), which can delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, did not make enough difference to justify prescription by the NHS.

Most drugs tested for efficacy and safety never make it to market, which is a major risk to offset potential rewards in this sector. “Big pharma” also gets a bad press from some politicians, such as Robert F Kennedy Jr, who was appointed as the American health secretary in February.

His scepticism about vaccines hit Pfizer (PFE), which was the first company to gain authorisation for a Covid jab and remains a high-yielder, paying 7 per cent tax-free income in my Isa. But shares that I bought for $37 in January 2021 had slumped to $24 on Friday. Nurse!

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Nothing daunted, I note that Pfizer has survived since 1849 and was first to mass-produce penicillin, which saved many lives during and after the Second World War. It also discovered Viagra, which helps to cheer up many grumpy old men, so I hope this outfit will outlast Kennedy Jr.

Similarly, his mentor, the president, Donald Trump, has added political risk to uncertainty about Novo Nordisk (NOVO). This is the world’s biggest producer of synthetic insulin, a hormone that can control diabetes, an illness often associated with obesity. Novo Nordisk is listed in Denmark, whose protectorate of Greenland is the object of Trump’s repeated and unsolicited ambitions to take it over.

As reported here in June 2021, I paid 254 Danish krone, allowing for a subsequent two-for-one stock split, before taking profits by selling at DK926 last August, as also reported here at that time. Last month I paid DK434 for shares that traded at DK477 this week, depressed by Trump’s tariff threats. But I hope his bark is worse than his bite.

There is no guarantee that medical investments will produce healthy returns. However, this sector does meet real needs and is being reinvented by big pharma plus robots. So today’s somewhat sickly share prices might offer investors the opportunity to do well by doing good.

Medical equipment firm could be ripe for rehabilitation

More than 850,000 people are on NHS waiting lists for orthopaedic surgery, as an older and heavier population feels the pull of gravity on our bones and muscles. No wonder some are getting bored of asking: “Are we nearly there yet?”

Now a British business, founded in Hull in 1856, is using the latest robotic-assisted surgery to speed things up. Last Wednesday, it announced Britain’s first orthopaedic ambulatory surgery centre for NHS and private patients, to deliver hip and knee replacements at Poole, Dorset.

Sad to say, patients aren’t the only ones who might be feeling impatient about the rate of progress. Shareholders in Smith & Nephew (SN) are suffering, too, since its price has nearly halved over the last six years.

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Lower sales in China and higher taxes in America have hurt this FTSE 100-listed firm, whose medical equipment can help with sports injuries, wound management and orthopaedics. After the share price soared to nearly £20 in 2019, it slumped to £10.78 on Friday.

This long-term investor paid £7.99 in November 2013, on the basis that demographics were likely to drive demand higher. I continue to believe that, despite Mr Market’s manic tendency to swing from excessive enthusiasm to the depths of despair. Dividend income, equal to 2.6 per cent of the share price, is another reason to remain cheerful.

Analysts at the investment bank UBS reckon that cost-cutting and a possible break-up of the business, selling off Smith & Nephew’s constituent parts, could lift the price to £16 per share. So I intend to hang on tight and hope that, one day, it might throw away its crutches and dance again.

Full disclosure: Ian Cowie’s shareholdings