A Bradford hospital consultant’s new role will see him training surgeons of the future across the UK and Europe, who will be using state-of-the-art robotics.

Consultant Uro-oncologist and Urological Surgeon, Raj Singh, has become a proctor for Intuitive Surgical, the manufacturers of the revolutionary da Vinci robotic-assisted surgical systems or ‘robots’, which are used at Bradford Royal Infirmary, part of Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

A ‘proctor’ is another word for a mentor, and this will see Mr Singh, who is also the Trust’s Cancer Lead, training urology ‘robotic’ surgeons of the future.

“It’s quite an honour to be asked,” said Mr Singh, who becomes the only proctor for urology in Yorkshire, proctoring prostate, bladder and kidney surgeries, and one of only a handful of Intuitive Surgical proctors across the country.

The teaching will be carried out in-house at BTHFT, which was proud to pioneer robotic-assisted urological cancer surgery in Yorkshire with its first ‘robot’ back in 2012.

“At BTHFT, I’ll be training and upskilling surgeon colleagues to use the da Vinci robotic systems but I will also be training surgeons from other hospitals who will come to Bradford to observe the robotic surgical systems in action and learn their skills here,” he said.

Mr Singh began his medical training in the Caribbean, in Jamaica. He graduated in 1992 and came to the UK two years later, where his first job was at BTHFT as a senior house officer.

He then spent two years at the Trust before taking up posts in Newcastle and then Preston before returning to his native Trinidad. He returned to the UK in 2006 as a British Journal of Urology International Scholar, spending three years at St Bartholomew’s Hospital (Barts) and University College Hospital, London.

He rejoined BTHFT as a consultant urologist in 2012 when his journey with robotic-assisted surgery began. Bradford has now become one of the highest-volume robotic-assisted urological centres in the north of England with surgeons having conducted close to 3,000 surgical procedures. Mr Singh himself has carried out more than 1,000 surgeries using the da Vinci systems.

The Trust now has two da Vinci robotic-assisted surgical systems; the original 2012 ‘robot’ was upgraded with the most up-to-date £1.7 million da Vinci Xi system in April 2022, before the second ‘robot’ was installed in January 2023. At the same time, the Trust took delivery of a ‘dual console’ which enables the training of new surgeons.

Mr Singh added: “Having two da Vinci Xi ‘robots’ means that a wider variety of cancer surgeries can now be operated on. As well as urological (prostate, bladder, kidney) and head and neck cancer surgeries, patients are also able to undergo robotic-assisted surgery for a variety of colorectal procedures, bowel and gynaecological cancers as well as hernia repair, upper and lower GI and gynaecological surgeries.

“At BTHFT we have a team of 15 robotics-trained surgeons, and we are working hard to get back to the levels of robotic-assisted surgery that we were carrying out prior to the pandemic and we are almost there.

“My ultimate dream is to create a Bradford robotic-assisted surgery centre which is multi-specialty and world class. We have the expertise so this is definitely achievable. There is no doubt about it, the future of all surgery is robotics.”