After 4 years wait, Safdarjung Hospital gets Rs 24 crore robot for high tech renal treatment

New Delhi : In a first, the Central government-run Safdarjung Hospital has started doing advanced medical procedures with the help of the robot.

Last month, Safdurjung Hospital received the robot from the US, for which the Union Health Ministry had been working for the past four years. The robot, which has cost Rs 24 crore, has treated 25 patients so far.

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Inaugurating the new facility on Saturday, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said: "Safdarjung Hospital has become the first government centre to start robotic kidney transplant in India."

"Now, poor patients suffering from renal and urological diseases don't have to wait for a longer period of time. Safdarjung Hospital is providing treatment free of cost to all the patients," he said.

Informing the benefits of the robot in the medical field, Dr Anup Kumar, Professor and Head of Urology and Renal Transplant Department, Safdarjung Hospital, said: "Robotics has become the need of the present era."

"It is reducing significantly the morbidity and mortality of critically ill cancer and kidney failure patients.

The patients will get all benefits of minimally invasive surgery with no need for big skin incisions, lesser pain, blood loss, blood transfusion, early recovery and better functional and oncological outcomes," said Dr Kumar.

"Already 25 patients suffering with prostate, kidney, bladder cancers and advanced reconstructive surgeries have been treated so far," he said.

"The robotic system has come from the USA. It provides 7 degrees of freedom, 3-D vision,10 times magnification and better dissection with more precision. It also makes suturing much easier in complex reconstructive cases," he said.

"The operating time will decrease, thus the turn over of patients will improve, decreasing the waiting list of patients. This will enable doing even complex and difficult cases using minimally invasive surgery techniques like renal transplant," said Dr Kumar.

"These procedures are done at a cost of Rs 5-6 lakh in a private hospital but will be done free of cost for the poor population of India. Thus, we can provide advantages of minimally invasive surgery, reducing significantly the morbidity and mortality of critically ill cancer and kidney failure patients," he said.

"Patients suffering from urology cancers like prostate, kidney, urinary bladder including renal transplant will be most benefitted if their surgery is done with the robotic system. The robot will also be used for CTVS and gynaecology surgeries," said he.

This new super-speciality block will be the centre of excellence for Robotic Uro-oncology and Renal Transplant in the country with all advanced infrastructure. This will also be used as the National Robotic Training Centre for the training of young doctors.

The department is also going to start robotic surgeries international live webcast from next week.

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Under the E-Health online education programme of the Union Health Ministry, the Safdarjung Hospital has conducted the first international live 3-D laparoscopic surgeries webcast, showing complex uro-oncology and reconstructive surgeries.

This programme has been planned to be organised twice a month. It is connected with 52 medical colleges across the country, first such programme in urology in India.