Robots in the operating theatre are the last word in technology

ROBOTS are to help surgeons in a Glasgow hospital in what is being described as a pioneering leap forward in medical technology.

The machines will be installed in the Southern General Hospital and will give consultants control of equipment around the operating theatre through simple voice-activated commands.

The use of the new technology has been heralded as a first for the UK.

The voice-controller, the latest in theatre technology, can direct lighting, monitors, surgical pumps and other specialist equipment.

Surgeons will use radio microphones to dictate their commands, freeing up their hands to concentrate on the job at hand.

South Glasgow Hospitals University NHS Trust has entered a partnership with Stryker UK, one of the world’s leading orthopaedic technology firms, to take the equipment on a three-month trial.

Gordon Mullen, regional sales manager with Stryker UK, said: “There are as many as 36 machines used by surgeons in a theatre setting.

“When surgeons are at the operating table, they are scrubbed and sterile and cannot touch anything but the instruments and patient and have to ask others to move equipment.

“With this equipment they have a headset which they speak into, which can control cameras for keyhole surgery, suction pumps and other machines, and means there needs to be less people in the room, making it safer.”

The system costs about 300,000 per theatre, but machinery at the Southern is already in place and will now be modified to conform with the voice control application.

A spokeswoman for the hospital trust said: “We are excited about the possibilities the voice activated endosuite opens up.

“It will free up theatre nurses and lessen the time that patients are under anaesthetic and will improve the quality of care.

“It can also be used to record operations and then, as a teaching aid, showing them to students later.”

Stryker says the system will cut costs and potentially leave patients safer from infection, with less people directly involved during procedures.

The system provides the only voice-activated theatre equipment in the world.

In the private health care of the US, there are already 750 similar voice-controlled theatres in operation, but the Southern General will l blaze a trail for other UK hospitals.

Staff expressed hope that the equipment will reduce waiting times as it will allow operations to be carried out quicker, giving a faster turnaround in precious theatre time.

This week, South Glasgow Hospitals University NHS Trust said it would farm out 570 operations to the private Ross Hall and HCI hospitals in an attempt to meet government waiting list targets.