Robot arrivals 'great achievement for Ipswich'

West Moreton region residents can now access advanced treatments locally and recover closer to home following the arrival of two new medical robots at St Andrew's Ipswich Private Hospital.

Theda Vinci XiandRosadevices will initially be used for urology and orthopaedic procedures, and then other surgical specialties in the future.

"Previously patients needed to travel outside this district to access these robots, for example toToowoomba or Brisbane, but now they can stay right here in Ipswich and recover from their proceduresclose to home," CEO Claire Thurwood said.

The new devices follow the introduction of augmented reality-based technology for total knee replacementsat the South-East Queensland hospital in September 2020.

"We are determined to ensure our patients and surgeons have access to state-of-the-art technology, andwe're passionate about investing in the latest equipment with the aim of improving patient outcomes," Ms Thurwood added.

Urologist Dr Jonathan Chambers said having the da Vinci robot in Ipswich was "a great achievement for the community".

"Itallows us to perform minimally-invasive procedures and offer patients faster recovery times andoutcomes," he said.

Fellow urologist DrHee Soo Teng said the da Vinci Xi allowed much greater access to parts of a patient's body.

"Imagine that you have no tremor, no shaking of the hand, because the robot hand is very, very steadyand can reach anywhere in a patient's body that we couldn't reach.

"The robot arm itself can turn three andhalf times, whereas our hand can only turn about 70 or 80 degrees," Dr Teng said.

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Orthopaedic surgeon Dr David Morgan is performing total kneereplacements with the Rosa robot, and later this year it will also be used for partial kneereplacements and hip replacements.

"The big difference with the Rosa robot is that we can evaluate the patient's soft tissue envelope beforewe put the knee replacement components in," he said.

"Previously we've had to put the implants in and then adjustthe soft tissues to fit – now we can evaluate the soft tissues, evaluate the alignment, tell the robot what wewant to achieve, and we can achieve it."

Fellow orthopaedic surgeon Dr Angus Moxon said the hospital could now offer knee-replacement patients the latest technology and the bestpossible outcomes.

"We don't want GPs referring to Brisbanebecause they don't think we've got everything here – we are absolutely an equivalent, with easier car parking and access," he said.

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