Telangana’s health department is planning to make three to six months of robotic surgery training mandatory for postgraduate medical students as it prepares to expand robotic surgical facilities from Hyderabad to government hospitals in districts across the state.
The proposal is intended to create a larger pool of uniformly trained surgeons and reduce the concentration of robotic procedures in a small number of premier institutions. The government also plans to seek permission from the National Medical Commission to include the dedicated training period within the three-year postgraduate programme.
A pan-state, multi-specialty robotic surgery training programme was recently held at the Marri Chenna Reddy Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences in Sanathnagar. Dr A Narendra Kumar, director of TIMS, said surgeons from 35 medical colleges and 47 hospitals, excluding speciality hospitals, were already being trained at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences and MNJ Cancer Institute.
The proposed expansion includes robotic surgery centres at government medical colleges and hospitals in Sanathnagar, LB Nagar and Alwal, as well as the new Osmania General Hospital, Warangal Super Speciality Hospital, Gandhi Hospital and Niloufer Hospital. Nine regional referral centres are also proposed at RIMS Adilabad and government general hospitals in Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Nalgonda, Sangareddy, Khammam, Warangal, Mahabubnagar and Vikarabad.
Sources cited in the report said an indent had been placed with the Telangana State Medical Services and Infrastructure Development Corporation for 15 robotic surgery systems. Three systems are proposed for TIMS, while one each is planned for Osmania General Hospital, Gandhi Hospital, Niloufer Hospital and nine former district hospitals.
The proposed distribution reflects a hub-and-spoke approach under which major institutions could support training and specialised care while regional hospitals extend access closer to patients. Dr Kumar said the objective was to ensure that robotic surgery did not remain concentrated in a handful of institutions in Hyderabad. The plan could reduce the need for patients from smaller cities and rural districts to travel to the state capital for eligible procedures, although the final operating model has not yet been announced.
The state’s recent experience at NIMS is also part of the expansion plan. The institute has completed nearly 1,000 robotic surgeries, with eligible patients receiving financial coverage under the Rajiv Aarogyasri scheme. The report did not provide a proposed procedure-wise capacity, staffing plan or schedule for commissioning the new systems.
Officials and experts cautioned that purchasing robotic equipment alone would not establish a functioning public robotic surgery network. Dr N Vani, director of medical education, said young surgeons would need to combine exposure to new technology with clinical judgement, human touch and compassion. A government doctor cited in the report said the system would also require appropriate infrastructure, trained faculty, structured protocols, multidisciplinary teams and institutional support.
The health department’s next formal step is to approach the National Medical Commission for approval to introduce the dedicated robotic surgery training period into postgraduate medical education. The proposed centres and equipment are expected to be established in phases, subject to the required approvals and institutional arrangements.
