Surgeons carried out as many operations in two days as would have taken them a whole month — using robot surgery to speed things with the next patient lined up ready to go. They worked out of hours over two weekends to tackle the NHS waiting list for this type of surgery. Paul Wall needed the operation after scans found polyps in his gall bladder which were getting bigger.
The 69-year-old was worried about delays with strike action in the NHS at the time. “I’d had my pre-op assessment but wasn’t given a date for the operation,” Paul recalls. “Then I got a call offering it the next day — I thought, ‘right, let’s get this done!’ “I have a heart problem, so I was first on the list in case of complications.
” Paul stayed overnight and was home the following day. The longer patients wait for their surgery, the higher the risk of complications and needing A&E. So Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs King George and nearby Queen's Hospital in Romford, started fast-track Saturday sessions to shorten waiting times.
Doctors completed six robotic-assisted gall bladder removals in the first session at King George, sitting at computer consoles to control small surgical instruments and a camera to give more precision and greater range of movement. The next session had three teams carrying out 19 operations, six with robots assisting and 13 laparoscopy procedures where the surgeon uses small incisions and a camera in the operation.