MEDICS are to be trained in robotic surgery after a North-East hospital took delivery of a state-of-the-art robot.

The da Vinci robot has been installed at the surgical training centre in Newcastle, allowing more doctors to be trained in the pioneering technique.

Among the patients who have been operated on by robot is 73-year-old Anthony Fawcett, from Richmond, in North Yorkshire after he was diagnosed with a kidney tumour.

The tumour was in a very difficult position inside the kidney and was too complex to remove by keyhole surgery.

Facing an operation to remove the entire kidney, he was referred to the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle for robotic surgery where only the tumour and a small piece of the kidney was removed.

He said: "I was surprised that after the operation I was in very little pain and after a few days in hospital I was fit and ready to go home.

“Thankfully, even though the tumour later proved to be malignant, I needed no further treatment, just monitoring for five years post operation.

“When I go for my ultrasound scans, they are surprised how little of my kidney I have lost.

“Now four years on and enjoying life to the full, I am so very grateful to have been given the chance to have this operation which not only saved my kidney but also my life, I would recommend having robotic surgery to anyone.”

Professor Naeem Soomro, associate medical director and consultant urologist at the Freeman, said: “Robotic surgery is the future and we have to adapt our surgical training accordingly.

“Not only does robotic surgery allow us to operate on parts of the body that were once inaccessible to the human hand, it also means that surgeons can be trained more quickly to carry out procedures because of the precision and dexterity of the robots."