Robotic surgery returns to Royal Adelaide Hospital in 2024 with hope for patients having quicker hospitals exit

The new robotic system at Royal Adelaide Hospital gave three-dimensional high-definition vision allowing surgeons to do more complex surgery while keeping a minimalist or keyhole approach. Top right: Peter Sutherland who pioneered the technique in South Australia at the the RAH where  surgeons travelled from around the world to study under him.
Main images courtesy Central Adelaide Local Health Network, SA Health government department

State-of-the-art robotic surgery technology returned to the Royal Adelaide Hospital and the South Australian public health system in 2024 with treatment benefits and quicker recovery to reduce bed block in the hospitals.

The new Da Vinci XI robot at Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) allowed minimally invasive procedures such as complex head and neck operations, treating kidney, bowel, and uterine cancers, as well as colorectal surgery.  It would improve access for patients to advanced surgical services using pioneering medical technologies, with up to 250 robotic surgeries expected each year at Royal Adelaide Hospital.

Robotic-assisted surgery has proven benefits for specific cancer patients, such as radical prostatectomy (to remove the prostate gland), patients with certain kidney cancer where surgery with a robot allows the kidney to partly preserved and patients with cancers of the uterus.

The South Australian government was contributing $7 million to operate the technology at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and the Health Services Charitable Gifts Board invested $5.1 million.

South Australia was one of the first Australian states to have access to surgical robot capabilities in a public hospital, with the RAH using it on site for procedures between 2005 and 2015. Peter Sutherland, one of South Australia's first surgeons to train in open radical prostatectomy in the United States of Australia, brought the technique back to Adelaide in the 1980s. In 2004, he pioneered robotic urology in South Australia and set upAustralia's first public robotic surgery program in the Royal Adelaide Hospital where he was head of urology for 25 years. Surgeons from around the world travelled to work and study under Peter Sutherland and his team in the Royal Adelaide's robotic fellowship programme.

The Da Vinci XI robot machine moved to St Andrews Hospital in Adelaide city in 2015 as part of a public private partnership but increasing demand from Adelaide surgeons inspired the return to the public sector. The Central Adelaide Local Health Network continued to work with St Andrew’s Hospital as it moved the robotic surgery programme to the RAH. Other private providers - together with St Andrew's – would continue to provide options for robotic surgery for public patients.

South Australian government health minister Chris Picton said the the return of robotic surgeries to South Australia’s flagship public hospital for the first time since 2015, made it “more accessible for everyday South Australians”.

Central Adelaide Local Health Network medical lead surgery, Peter Subramaniam, said the network’s surgeons had been key to advancing the scope of robotic surgery and in training local, national, and international surgeons. He confirmed that “using robotic-assisted surgery has less  complications, faster recovery, reduced stay in hospital, and faster return to normal day activities. He said Central Adelaide Local Health Network was continuing to develop a centre of excellence in robotic surgery, clinical innovation and research in cancer and surgery fields, attracting innovative and highly competent robotic surgeons and most promising trainee surgeons.