Telangana plans to introduce robotic surgery training into postgraduate medical education and expand robotic surgery services across government hospitals within six months, the state health department has announced.
Health minister Damodar Rajanarsimha said the proposal would allow postgraduate students to receive robotic surgery training during the final six months of their peripheral postings at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (Nims) and MNJ Cancer Hospital. The department has already sent doctors to the two institutions for training, he said.
The proposal would introduce robotic training in the second year of postgraduate courses, with the programme later extended to undergraduate medical students. The plan is intended to give students hands-on exposure to robotic surgical technology as part of their medical education.
Speaking at a state-level multi-speciality robotic surgery workshop at the Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (Tims) in Sanathnagar, Rajanarsimha said advanced robotic surgery services would be extended to Tims, the new Osmania Hospital, Gandhi Hospital, Niloufer Hospital, the upcoming super-speciality hospital in Warangal and government general hospitals in district headquarters.
“The department has already sent doctors for training to Nims and MNJ. We now have discussions for PG students, with a proposal to include robotic training in their second year. This will slowly extend to UG students so that all of them get hands-on experience,” the minister said.
Nims has completed 1,000 robotic surgeries, according to the report. The state plans to use expertise from Dr Sudhir Srivastava, a specialist in robotic cardiac surgery, to strengthen its services and training programme.
Srivastava said young doctors needed training in newer technologies and offered to provide buses equipped with robotic simulation facilities for postgraduate training. The mobile simulation facilities would support training beyond the institutions that currently have access to robotic surgery infrastructure.
The expansion is expected to connect specialist surgical services and medical training across Telangana’s government hospital system. The institutions named in the plan include major hospitals in Hyderabad as well as the proposed super-speciality hospital in Warangal and government general hospitals serving district headquarters.
Director of Medical Education Dr N. Vani said the programme should align with Telangana Rising plans and Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy’s vision of providing advanced technology training to doctors while improving access to health services.
Tims director Dr Narendra Kumar, former Nims director Dr Beerappa, GMC Siddipet director Dr Vimala Thoma, and robotic surgery experts Dr Sudhir Srivastava and Dr Raj Gajbhiye attended the workshop. The health department’s proposed timeline is to expand robotic surgery services to the identified government hospitals within six months.
