Telangana is exploring a proposal to make six months of robotic surgery training mandatory for postgraduate medical students, as the State looks to build a trained workforce to expand advanced robotic procedures across its government hospitals.
MCR TIMS Director Dr A. Robotic surgery expert Dr. He pointed to the financial and emotional burden faced by families from rural and smaller communities when they have to leave their homes to access specialised treatment. Former NIMS Director Dr N. Experts at the workshop also cautioned that expanding robotic surgery is about considerably more than installing machines. Government Medical College Nagpur Dean Dr.
Narendra Kumar said surgeons from 35 medical colleges and 47 hospitals, excluding speciality hospitals, are being trained in robotic surgery at two government institutions, Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) and MNJ Cancer Institute. Bheerappa said NIMS had recently completed nearly 1,000 robotic surgeries and that the government was bearing the cost of such procedures for eligible patients through the Rajiv Aarogyasri health scheme.
Speaking at the ‘State Level Multi-Specialty Robotic Surgery Workshop’ at the Marri Chenna Reddy Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (MCR TIMS), Sanathnagar in Hyderabad, the Minister said training would be central to Telangana’s plans to expand robotic surgery, whether through a hub-and-spoke model or dedicated robotic surgery facilities at the district level. “The idea is to ensure that robotic surgery does not remain concentrated in a handful of premier institutions in Hyderabad,” he added. Sudhir Srivastava said such a model could allow specialist expertise to reach patients without requiring them to travel to major cities. Raj Gajbhiye said robotic surgery was no longer merely a technology available at a few high-end private institutions.
