Not far to go now to keep the Da Vinci robot at QA

We're nearly there '“ just £196,000 left to find to keep the revolutionary Da Vinci robot at Queen Alexandra Hospital.

At a cost of £2.4m – which has to be found by June – the Da Vinci robot seems a rather expensive piece of kit.

The robot is currently being leased to the hospital by American firm Intuitive Surgical, which owns it, and QA has to pay off the remaining £196,000 to be able to keep it.

But what cost do we put on saving lives?

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Derek Gillard knows just how special the machine is and that is why he encouraged his Hayling Island Lions to raise money.

Now he has handed over a £2,000 cheque to the fund to pay off the remainder of the money.

He was diagnosed with bowel cancer and saw the benefits for himself of the hi-tech surgery robot that can perform keyhole surgery.

Thankfully Derek is on the mend.

He said: ‘I thought the robot was remarkable. I was operated on for six hours but only took four days to recover in hospital. The scars left by the robot were so minimal and it was a remarkable success.’

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Derek’s story alone puts the cost of the robot into perspective.

With conventional surgery a patient would probably spend a lot more time in hospital than four days with the costs that that entails – nursing staff and doctors, not to mention the fact that Derek freed up a bed much quicker for someone else to be treated.

Donations have come from far and wide for the robot, including a whopping £15,000 from the hospital’s own League of Friends.

The News is proud to be associated with its campaign – Da Vinci, the final push – and hopes that the final £196,000 won’t be long in coming to retain this marvellous piece of technology.

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