Concord Hospital the first public facility in Australia to use new surgical robot. 
 

A surgical team at Concord Hospital has made history, completing the first operation in an Australian public hospital to use a new Toumai Surgical robot.

The team – led by Associate Professor Ruban Thanigasalam, robotic surgery lead at the RPA Institute of Academic Surgery – conducted the surgery on a prostate cancer patient on Monday 23 March 2026 as part of a clinical trial of the new system. 

Associate Professor Thanigasalam said the Toumai system could make robotic surgery much more accessible for the public hospital system.

“At the moment at RPA we have a robot called a da Vinci robot, which is basically the one most people in the country have been using for the last two decades,” he said.

“This is a newer alternative to that – it is a very similar piece of hardware but much less costly. So there is the benefit in the public health sector because one of the issues with robotic surgery in the public system has been that it is very expensive.

“This machine has the potential to democratise robotic surgery in this country, opening up access for all, because traditionally a lot of the procedures are done in the private sector, bar a handful of robots in certain public hospitals.”

The year-long clinical trial – run by Associate Professor Thanigasalam and Associate Professor Scott Leslie – aims to measure clinical outcomes from using the new robot and compare them with the outcomes from the existing system in use at RPA.

“What we're hoping for is that there's no major difference, so we can offer the same type of operation with excellent outcomes for our patients,” Associate Professor Thanigasalam said.

While it is only the very beginning of the trial, Associate Professor Thanigasalam said his early impressions of the Toumai robot were very positive, citing easy to use software and impressive image clarity as notable features.

The trial has already attracted considerable interest across the country, with surgeons from Victoria, Queensland and South Australia country keenly monitoring its progress.

A key benefit of the Toumai robot system, Associate Professor Thanigasalam said, is the possibility for it to be used for telesurgery.

“If there's a robot in Lismore – which there is [at a private hospital] – I can sit at the console in Concord and actually do that operation, once TGA approval and ethics approval have been gained,” he said.

“Where that becomes useful is in rural centres – where they have excellent surgeons, great staff but, for certain procedures, they may not have the experience available in metropolitan centres.

“Instead of travelling up to thousands of kilometres to a major centre to have this kind of surgery, the patients could be close to their own home and have the surgery at their local hospital with the telesurgery, but with the surgeon who's got the expertise in Sydney doing it.” 

It is expected 80 to 100 patients will undergo surgery during the year-long trial of the Toumai robot.