Mr Brough and St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne urologist Lih-Ming Wong held a conference for Launceston health care workers and the general public on Wednesday, explaining the benefits of the da Vinci Surgical System.

He said the device had been used in Australia for over 15 years, and was baffled it had not been introduced in Tasmania, despite 41 devices located in hospitals around the country.

Mr Brough said the robotic device used a key-hole, and resulted in reduced recovery time for the patient both in the hospital and at home.

“They’re back to normal activities after say two or three weeks, rather than four to six weeks after an open operation,” he said.

“I don’t think there’s any particular complications that would be different from open surgery – certainly not.” 

He said shorter lengths of stay in the hospital reduced risks of patients acquiring blood clots and infections. 

St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne urologist Lih-Ming Wong said the machine costed about $3 million, and $300,000 a year to maintain. 

“I think we’d have to look at both public and private patients being able to gain access to robotic surgery,” Mr Brough said.

“The main issue with us is population base, and trying to fund one on a patient numbers model, it’s not really feasible to do that, because they’re quite expensive.”

Mr Brough said the machine could be utilised for multiple purposes, including removing kidney tumours, pelvic and colorectal surgery.  

“I think we should be looking to invest in it as a community, otherwise we’re not going to have the service.

“And if we don’t have the service, we’ll lose the ability to offer that kind of operation, and then we’ll lose the ability to do other kinds of operations.”