A cutting-edge surgeon has said the health sector is risk averse towards technology.
Shahid Islam is a consultant urological surgeon and clinical director for urology at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust.
Mr Islam was responsible for introducing the 拢1.3 million Da Vinci robot to operating theatres in Blackburn.
The machine reduces the average stay following keyhole surgery down from six to 3.2 days. The surgeon graphically described to 老九品茶Cloud what his team does.
鈥淚鈥檓 a urologist,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e like putting scopes up people鈥檚 wotsits and we do about 2,660 procedures a year.
鈥淪ix instruments [we use] go through proper decontamination, and each of those instruments costs about 拢16,000. They鈥檙e extremely fragile.
鈥淪o there鈥檚 a constant turnover. There鈥檚 a new system that came online using one scope that cost 拢7,000, and uses a replaceable sheath.
鈥淪o what we are getting is a quick flow, less amount of money spent, and less damage to the scopes 鈥� we鈥檙e saving money there as well.
鈥淭he roadblock is when infection control comes in: You may perforate the sheath. We went back to the company, and they鈥檝e sold five million sheaths around the world.
鈥淚f you put in the effort you can perforate anything. So that鈥檚 the challenge we鈥檙e talking about 鈥� that鈥檚 the psyche of the NHS inherently 鈥� 鈥榠t can鈥檛 be done鈥�.
鈥淲hen you argue your case with proper scientific evidence then one has to say 鈥榶es, it is time to change鈥�.
鈥淏ut tech won鈥檛 save the NHS on its own. It is the mindset that will change the NHS.鈥�