{"id":248562,"date":"2025-07-08T17:36:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T17:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/248562\/"},"modified":"2025-07-08T17:36:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T17:36:19","slug":"nhs-to-use-robots-on-obese-patients-during-surgery-as-its-safest-way-to-operate-on-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/248562\/","title":{"rendered":"NHS to use robots on obese patients during surgery as it’s safest way to operate on them"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE NHS will use surgical robots to get more fat Brits on the operating table because machines can work on people who are too high-risk for manual procedures.<\/strong><\/p>\n

They use smaller instruments<\/a> and enter through smaller incisions, and can be faster so patients do not need as much anaesthetic.<\/p>\n

\"Robotic<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Staff using the new Versius robotic arm technology during a surgery at Milton Keynes NHS HospitalCredit: PA\"Robotic<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Robotics is one of the Government\u2019s ‘five big bets’ on technology that will revolutionise the NHS<\/p>\n

Robotics<\/a> is one of the Government\u2019s<\/a> \u201cfive big bets\u201d on technology that will revolutionise the NHS.<\/p>\n

Ministers\u2019 10-Year Plan for the health service, launched last week, said it will \u201cexpand surgical robot adoption\u201d.<\/p>\n

NHS<\/a> watchdog the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) has encouraged hospitals to invest more in surgical robots and use them more widely.<\/p>\n

A recent report by NHS England added: \u201cRobot-assisted surgery may improve access to surgery for people who are at higher risk, including people with a high body mass index.\u201d<\/p>\n

Body mass index<\/a> is a height-to-weight ratio, with any number higher than 30 classed as obese<\/a>.<\/p>\n

About three in 10 adults in England are obese and this puts them at higher risk during operations and may even mean they can\u2019t have them.<\/p>\n

Bulky fat means it takes longer to conduct super-precise surgery and large patients need more anaesthetic and lose more blood.<\/p>\n

Top prostate surgeon Ben Challacombe, who works at Guy\u2019s and St Thomas\u2019 NHS Trust in London, said: \u201cOperating on obese patients is highly complex and more tricky.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re obese you\u2019re much more likely to get an infection or to have breathing difficulties because your lungs are being squashed by other tissues.<\/p>\n

\u201cRobotic assistance means we can do more.<\/p>\n

Robot doctor that can perform surgery in space is destined for ISS<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can do robotic surgery on much bigger patients than we could with traditional keyhole surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeffrey Ahmed, a gynaecological surgeon at Chelsea and Westminster NHS Trust, said: \u201cSome patients are too obese to have an operation, because to do a big open operation on someone whose BMI is 65 subjects them to too much risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe minimally invasive approach that we can do on the robot opens up the possibility of doing that kind of care for patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it will be used more in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you can’t physically do an operation for a patient without a robot, then that’s going to be the way to do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can’t just not offer the patient surgery because you don’t have access to a robot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robot-assisted surgery<\/a> relies on qualified surgeons controlling the \u00a31m machines with the usual medical team around the patient.<\/p>\n

There are about 140 machines in use in England and their use has rocketed from 35,000 operations in 2022 to 70,000 in 2024.<\/p>\n

Dr Chris Smith-Brown, from the Private Healthcare Information Network, added: \u201cWe know that losing weight is not always possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is hope that obesity won\u2019t have to be a barrier to life-changing surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Surgeon<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Surgical robots will be called in to get more fat people on the operating table as it is the safest way to treat themCredit: Getty<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE NHS will use surgical robots to get more fat Brits on the operating table because machines can…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4316],"tags":[442,443,560,105,426,4348,302,210,211,3061,445,460,6197,437,118,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-248562","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-body-shapes","9":"tag-diet-nutrition-and-weight-loss","10":"tag-exclusives","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-health-warnings","13":"tag-healthcare","14":"tag-heart-disease","15":"tag-mental-health-and-illness","16":"tag-nhs","17":"tag-nhs-crisis","18":"tag-obesity","19":"tag-operations-and-surgery","20":"tag-robots","21":"tag-section-healthnews-health","22":"tag-the-sun-newspaper","23":"tag-uk","24":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114818828574547572","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}