Patients undergoing procedures using the state-of-the-art Da Vinci surgical robot, installed at Busamed Gateway Private Hospital in uMhlanga on Wednesday, can look forward to complex, minimally invasive procedures with reduced pain, blood loss and recovery time.
Speaking to “The Mercury” on Thursday, EASE Holdings chief executive officer Imraan Soomra said the company enables access to high-value medical equipment to anyone who offers a medical service without the traditional burden of upfront capital investment.
While Busamed’s new robot will be used primarily by urologists and gynaecologists for routine minimally invasive surgeries, Soomra said the robot does have a broader reach.
He said the limitation is in the hands of the hospital group and medical insurance companies, depending on what procedures they are prepared to pay for.
“Globally the machines are used for a wide range of services. This is one of the reasons why this is an innovation for South Africa, because this is just the beginning in terms of the number of procedures that the robot can actually be used for,” he said.
According to Soomra, the robot provides the surgeon with an enhanced tool with improved vision as it has 10 times magnification. He said the machine also has enhanced dexterity, which means greater precision.
“The surgeon is not standing over the patient but seated at the console, so all the procedural elements are significantly improved. As a result, more complex procedures can be done with a smaller incision, which then means significantly less pain for the patient, with reduced blood loss. As a consequence, you recover quicker and your stay in hospital is shorter,” said Soomra.
He added that the overall cost would be reduced and there would be less demand on all the auxiliaries that are needed in a traditional surgery, such as blood.
The company is particularly excited that this was a formal launch of a pay-for-use model in South Africa, he said.
“The partnership with this robot is somewhat historical because not only is it the first surgical robot in KZN, but it’s the first time in South Africa that a pay-per-use model has been used to deploy a high-valued piece of medical equipment,” said Soomra.
Soomra explained that there has been a lot of talk recently around innovating health care in the country and how to improve access to the greater part of the population without compromising on standards.
“This for me is a model that can help us achieve that because there is a global shift towards the utilisation of equipment and if done right it shifts the cost that typically goes to equipment to other areas, such as research and development, training for nurses and expansion of hospital facilities,” he said.
With regard to the country’s National Health Insurance (NHI) that was signed into law in May, Soomra said that the government will need to take this into account.
“If we want to see a successful NHI model implemented in this country, this is one of the factors that would have to be taken into account,” he said.
As to whether other surgeons from different facilities would be able to use the robot is a decision that Busamed would have to make. Chief financial officer of the Busamed Hospital Group, Sunny Govender, said the pay-per-use model allows the hospital to only pay when actually using the machine.
Govender said this frees up resources that can be spent on more beds, more nurses and better care overall.
“We’re pleased to enter into this partnership with EASE which will support us in offering world-class care, while freeing up capital that would otherwise have gone towards the costly acquisition of this machine ...,” said Govender.
The Mercury