UCLH hosts robotic surgeons in London

Three London trusts joined forces to host the robotic section of the European Association of Urology conference which was held in London this year.

Teams from UCLH, Guy’s and St Thomas’ and the Royal Free London hosted ERUS25, Europe’s biggest event dedicated to robotic urology earlier this month.

The conference, which saw a series of surgical operations beamed live to the 1000 or so delegates, was successfully concluded on Friday 12^th September, despite tube strikes doing their best to hamper the schedule.

The 22nd edition of the annual meeting was opened by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting. 

Mr Streeting referred to the government’s plans to increase the number of robotic procedures performed in the UK from 70,000 to 500,000 by 2035, citing the advantages of shorter hospital stay and recovery time reducing pressure on the NHS.

A National Robotic Surgery Registry will be a part of this drive to increase the volume of procedures.

The programme of the meeting focused on practical instructions on robotic surgery through live surgery sessions, case discussions and lectures.

UK patients were offered the opportunity to have their surgery performed by world-leading surgeons under the care of the three London specialist surgical units as part of the conference.

And several robotic surgical technologies were showcased, including robotic telesurgery, single port surgery, artificial intelligence and space surgery.

UCLH surgeon Greg Shaw said:

“It has been a privilege to be able to bring together all these great minds to discuss all things urology and robotics.

“I thought the live surgery sessions were particularly well received and were definitely a highlight for the attendees.

“I am so grateful to my team at UCLH for coming together to make the conference a success, in particular Ashwin Sridhar and Senthil Nathan.

“UCLH is at the forefront of robotic surgery and we are keen to keep learning and innovating for the benefit of our patients, and will continue sharing our expertise through conferences like ERUS.”