The Trust held a thank you event for Bedford Hospital Charity & Friends on Friday 13 October, following the successful launch of our robotic assisted surgery programme at Bedford Hospital, which was possible thanks to the incredible £900,000 raised by the Charity.
This huge sum enabled the Trust to buy a da Vinci robot which has been up and running on the Bedford site since 17 April, treating patients undergoing colorectal, gynaecology and urology procedures.
We were also delighted to welcome some of the patients who have already benefitted from the new technology, as well as key clinical staff involved with the programme, including consultants, theatre, nursing and support staff, and our colleagues at Intuitive – the suppliers of the robot.
Our guests were able to take a trip to the operating theatre to learn more about the robot, and even sit down at the console and have a go at the controls.
A big thank you to everyone who made this event such a success.
The same technology is also now up and running at Luton & Dunstable University Hospital. To date more than 130 patients have undergone surgery with the da Vinci robot across both sites.