Bid to bring £2.7m robot surgery to Royal Cornwall Hospital

Despite caring for more than 600,000 people, and seeing the 13th highest volume of bowel cancer patients out of 154 units in the UK, the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro is the only centre in the top 20 to not offer robotic treatment.

As a result, prostate cancer treatment has already been moved to Derriford and Exeter, resulting in a long journey for patients in the far south and west of Cornwall, and there is a real risk that bowel and rectal cancer care could follow – leading in turn to a skills drain.

This is the warning from senior surgeon Nick Battersby, who, together with James Clark, is heading up the project – with Nick leading a fundraising campaign in the community to raise at least £100,000 towards the total, in a bid to attract larger NHS funding.

Nick, colorectal consultant and bowel cancer lead at Treliske, told the Packet: “We’ve been through the same thing with prostate cancer a few years ago. The decision was, if you have prostate cancer you have to have done robotically. That’s now been moved to Derriford and Exter.

What the robot looks like (Image: Greg Sparkes)

“The worry is that if we don’t get this, the same decision will be made for rectal cancer and we’ll lose rectal cancer surgery – it’s a genuine concern.

“If you lose one of the things that take the most skill, then quite likely you lose the most skilled surgeons, and the whole quality of the emergency care you can offer goes down.

“It’s crucial to be able to attract the best surgeons to Cornwall.”

Bringing robotic surgery to Cornwall, however, would not only keep this care in Cornwall but should allow the return of prostate cancer treatment back into the Duchy.

It would also have the additional benefit of being able to treat other conditions relating to the pelvis, including urology, bariatrics and in particular endometriosis, a debilitating condition for many women.

Nick said the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust was on board with the project, it was just a case of finding the money.

Nick trialling the system at a conference (Image: Nick Battersby)

While there are larger pots of NHS funding available to bid on, it was a case of proving the need and support – and this is where the community comes in.

By raising £100,000 through local fundraising by the target date of the end of this financial year, this can act as seed money to attract bigger grants.

“If somebody gave us £2.7million we’d be able to get it tomorrow, but in reality, the way the costings work, £100,000 would make a huge difference.”

Nick has already taken part in a sponsored swim across Falmouth Bay, and a fundraising page is now set up at www.justgiving.com/campaign/rchtroboticsurgeryfund for donations, with almost £15,000 raised so far.

He is also visiting local Rotary clubs and other community groups to give presentations on the subject, in the hope that they will support the fundraising through their grant schemes.

Nick Battersby is colorectal consultant and bowel cancer lead at Treliske (Image: Nick Battersby)

The Royal Cornwall Hospital is already at the leading edge of surgical treatments and is renowned for early adoption of minimally invasive surgery (small incisions made using miniaturised surgical instruments).

A robot would provide the next step in optimal and modern surgical care for patients at Treliske. The robotic device provides increased precision and enhanced views, which may allow patients to avoid needing as much radiotherapy and may avoid stomas. It also greatly reduces the risk of causing nerve damage, which has benefits for bladder, bowel and sexual function for all pelvic surgery.

The hospital has recently taken on a surgeon from Japan who is already trained in such robotic equipment, and so is at a great advantage to get the systems up and running quickly.