The first Robot-Assisted Surgery system has arrived at NHS Ayrshire & Arran.

The da Vinci robot-assisted surgery system is controlled by the surgeon and enables them to perform very precise and minimally invasive procedures in selected patient cases.

The system offers a number of patient benefits compared with conventional surgery such as, less blood loss, fewer complications, less time in the hospital, less chance of readmission to hospital and a faster return to normal activities.

Mr Christopher Ray, a consultant in colorectal surgery, said: “We are excited to be following in the footsteps of other boards in Scotland with this transformative technology.

“We want to ensure we are able to provide the best patient experience we can for our patients. Using this new technology we expect patients to have better clinical outcomes.

"Patients will be able to return to work and other hobbies and activities sooner, with the benefits that this brings to wellbeing and society.

"With quicker recovery times and shorter hospital stays we also expect robot-assisted surgery to improve the hospital efficiency and help increase our capacity to allow us to see more patients.”

The new robot-assisted surgery system will be based at University Hospital Crosshouse. Our clinical teams in urology, gynaecology, and colorectal surgery have already commenced their training with the aim to start pre-selected patients later in the year.