UHN undertakes more live-streamed robotic cancer operations as part of advanced medical education

The University Hospitals of Northamptonshire (UHN) has delivered two live-streamed robotic colorectal cancer operations to support the education of surgeons.

Two local patients with colorectal cancer consented to support the event. They were operated on at Northampton General Hospital while their operations were live-streamed into the Cripps Education Centre, also at NGH, one on October 8, and one on October 9, 2026.

The live-streamed operations formed part of a two-day robotic surgical symposium where consultants, colorectal surgeons, and senior doctors from Northamptonshire, the rest of the UK, and Norway and Portugal, met and took part in a range of events, lectures, discussions, and presentations.

It is the fourth time UHN – which runs both Kettering and Northampton general hospitals – have arranged an event as a way of teaching its own medical teams complex robotic surgery procedures while also enabling surgeons from other areas to learn state-of-the-art surgical procedures.

The event was organised by Mr Jamil Ahmed, UHN’s Deputy Director of Medical Education, who is also a consultant colorectal surgeon and lead for robotic colorectal surgery.

He said: “Once again we were extremely grateful to two of our cancer patients for consenting to have their robotic operations streamed live into the surgical symposium in a totally anonymous way through close-ups of their surgery.

“This is the fourth time that we have delivered a robotic symposium at NGH and we have had great feedback on all of them.

“It a very powerful experience to watch robotic surgery in real time and means delegates can see every step of the procedure, through the eyes of the surgeon, and see where decisions are made, and why they are made, and take part in discussions.

“The procedures we undertook in the live-stream we have performed many times with great success but surgeons have their own ways of doing things and it is a great opportunity to see exactly how others may perform the same operations you yourself do.”

Adrian Sample, 62, from Northampton, his procedure at NGH on Friday October 9 and was able to go home on Monday, October 12.

Adrian discovered he had bowel cancer after completing a routine bowel cancer screening test sent to him by post.

Following a positive result the team at NGH contacted him quickly and arranged further investigations, including MRI and CT scans.

He said: "The tests came back positive, and the team at NGH were quick to contact me and I begin my treatment quickly. In February I had both an MRI and the CT scan with 25 radiotherapy sessions beginning in April this year".

This treatment continued with four sessions of chemotherapy. There was then a break before Adrian went for the operation to remove the bowel cancer.

“I met my consultant Mr Ahmed and was happy with the plan that was put in place. I wasn’t concerned about the robotic surgery. I trusted the plan that was in place”.

After radiotherapy and chemotherapy, Adrian underwent robot-assisted surgery performed by Mr Ahmed to remove the cancer.

In total about 80 other surgeons and surgical trainees from across the country, including about 15 members of UHN, took part in the event.

Mr Ahmed, who is also a senior lecturer at the University Hospitals of Leicester, said: “Over the two days we live-streamed two different operations to remove part of colon and rectum which had cancer.

“Both procedures went well for the patients and we received a lot of positive feedback from the symposium attendees on the benefits of the live-streaming method.

“We very much hope to build on the success of this kind of training to deliver the very best quality of teaching and medical education at UHN.

“These events represent a significant achievement in establishing UHN as a leading centre for colorectal cancer and putting us on the map. This was made feasible through the outstanding collaboration of the theatre staff, anaesthetists, colorectal consultants, trainees, and the medical education team from NGH. I would also like to thank everyone who has been involved in supporting this event.”